


The Four Horsemen

by Serriya (Keolah)



Series: Interdimensional Bridge [46]
Category: Old World of Darkness
Genre: Apocalypse, F/M, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2006-09-01
Updated: 2006-09-07
Packaged: 2018-10-25 21:12:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 61,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10772526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Serriya
Summary: The plots of a Black Spiral Dancer threaten the world, and it's up to a pack of Glass Walkers to find a way to stop him, while there's still something left to save.





	1. A Warparty Gathers

It was only about a half hour drive, including the traffic downtown, and it passed quickly enough in idle chatter and light music playing in the background. Keytar came to a stop on the side road leading up to the caern, looking surprised as the laser gate was sealed and he had to input a clearance to continue past.

"What's the problem?" Rettah wondered, raising an eyebrow.

"No clue," Keytar replied and continued as the gate flickered briefly to let them pass. "Don't usually have the gates shut, must be somethin' goin' on up at the caern."

"Well, let's find out then shall we?" she said, curiosity piqued.

The parking lot was considerably fuller than the last time they visited, in fact it was overflowing and has vehicles parked out along the shoulders of the road leading up. Keytar frowned and parked as close as he could.

"What the hell?" he muttered and climbed out.

Rettah raised an eyebrow in curiosity and climbed out as well, looking around. "Well, something is certainly going on." She made to head in to see about finding out.

Definitely a lot more people running around too, generally looking purposeful and direction oriented, at least until they got into the lodge where the usual array of lounging and resting types can be found in the main hall. For once, Rettah didn't immediately think to go straight for the food and beverages, a more immediate interest on her mind at the moment.

Keytar looked around, pretty much all the faces are familiar here of course, but he spied Betty off near the bar ladling out a few helpings of stew and trotted over that way. "Hey Betty. What the hell's going on here?" he asked, to which she explained that there was a major warparty being formed to be sent out after the source of the recent attack.

"Y'know," Rettah said. "If it turns out they're from Keru, I'm going to eat my hat. Well, first I'm going to need to buy a hat, but still."

Keytar snorted, "Somehow I doubt it, not with Banes workin' with em. So where the hell _did_ they come from?" he asked Betty, who explained that the moon bridge was traced back to a caern in one of the Russian states, and was most definitely still active.

"So they just came over looking for our nuclear wessels?" Rettah said, clearly not in a mood to stay halfway serious for five minutes.

Betty just gave Rettah a Look, shook her head, and explained that the Sept leader had been calling Garou and other shapeshifters in for the past few days, apparently planning for one _hell_ of a warparty. She didn't know just what might be known that was suggesting this kind of reaction was necessary.

"Okay, okay, fine fine," Rettah said, smirking. "Guess we better put our next trip on hold, eh?"

"Thanks Betty," Keytar said and pulled Rettah off to a relatively quiet corner, "Or you can get the hell outta here, this ain't your fight, babe, and I dunno that a full-blown ass-stompin' warparty is gonna accept a stranger."

"Not on your life," she said, sobering. "And I'm not even going to mention how many people have died over the years because of people not getting involved in something that 'wasn't their fight'."

Keytar rubbed the side of his face. " _I_ know that and _you_ know that, but there's a lotta people out there that don't know you from Caine. I bet the only damned reason this show isn't on the road already is because of people bickering over others that they _already know_."

Rettah smirked faintly. "And what are you planning on doing then, hmm?"

Keytar grimaces. "Yeah well, much as they're a pain in the ass sometimes, they _are_ family, I can't walk away from that. Be different if I didn't know about it, but…" He shrugged.

"Well, I'm not about to walk away either. And you're not going to change my mind, so forget about it." She smirked.

"Okay babe, just don't say I didn't warn ya," Keytar sighed, "I'm pretty damned sure you're not gonna like how this turns out, and I damn well know _I'm_ not gonna."

Rettah didn't seem to really care at the moment. She might not generally prefer to rush headlong into combat like Ylanwad, but she knew she could damned well fight when necessary.

"It's not the Planar Wars. It's not World War III. I'm sure it'll be fine," she said, not particularly reassuringly.

Keytar smirked. "I wasn't talkin' about the fighting, I just meant… this." He gestured around them, "You've seen some of the better parts of the Garou and shapeshifters, you're probably about to see some of the worst, too." And he wasn't going to like that, not at all…

"Oh, don't doubt I've seen plenty of that in my time too," Rettah said, shaking her head a bit. "No, really, I can handle it, okay?"

"Okay, okay," Keytar replied with a forced grin, "Let's see if we can't find someone to give us a little more info."

Rettah nodded in agreement and said, "That's more like it. Let's." Once she set her mind on something, she was damned well going to see it through, whatever else happened.

Keytar wasn't real happy with her decision but really couldn't argue with it either and was, in some ways, glad of it. So he led the way off to go sorting through the masses of people that were here, with more arriving by the minute, looking for someone that might be willing and able to tell them more. After a few minutes searching, he saw a familiar glint of chrome, blinked, then headed over in that direction.

"Yo, boss!" Keytar called out, wondering how the _hell_ they'd gotten Sixshooter up here out in the 'dark and dreadful… but then again, this was a family affair.

Sixshooter turned away from the tall, dark-haired woman he'd been talking to and walked over to meet them, "Well, well, look what the cat dragged in… and you brought a friend." The smooth metallic lips quirked in a grin as he glanced at Rettah.

Rettah smirked faintly and gave a wave. "Name's Rettah Eiram," she said. "And I'm happy to lend my skills to the cause."

Sixshooter snorted faintly, "Pleased to meet ya, but don't be so quick about the 'happy to lend a hand' thing until ya hear what's been going on." His expression went grim, "Some asshole pulled a real nasty rabbit out of his hat, no one's sure just what happened or how they pulled it off, but they hit a couple caerns over in Russia… rolled right over the damned things."

"You're not likely to dissuade me, and from the sounds of things it sounds like you need all the help you can get," Rettah said grimly.

"Oh fuck no I ain't gonna try and _dissuade_ ya!" Sixshooter smirked. "Just puttin' the cards on the table so ya know the deal, ain't no use for what's comin' up if you're caught pants down, ya know?" He frowned. "Anyway, there's another bit a 'good' news ta go with it, initial scoutin' reports caught wind of a name involved with it, an old friend o' ours… Jez'kai."

Keytar blinked. "Waitasec, isn't he _dead_ or somethin'?"

Sixshooter chuckled mirthlessly and nodded. "That's what we thought, and no one's actually seen the sonuvacat, but he's either alive-o or we're dealin' with somethin' he cooked up and set to simmer who the fuck knows how long ago."

"Lovely, people with nasty habits of not staying dead and quiet," Rettah said dryly, trying to recall where she'd heard that name before. Aha, there it was.

"Yeah, the bastard pulled that trick a few times," Sixshooter snorted, "Thought we'd pegged it the last time, since the fetish he was usin' ta do it was destroyed, but…" He shrugged. "Could just be somethin' he let run on its own and it's just now boilin' out of the woodwork, that's what we're hopin' anyway."

"Mmh," Rettah said. Well, it still sounded preferable to romping around with a pair of crazy foxes at any rate. "Alright, so what's going to happen now? When are we moving out?"

Sixshooter smirked. "Now we wait for the tribes to get their shit together and stop the pissing match to see who leads the charge. Morrison's dealin' with the details of gettin' people moved thataway, don't envy the poor bastard _that_ fun little task, dealin' with every pissant country and caern that we're gonna have to cross the borders of."

"What, don't tell me they're planning on _walking_ there," Rettah said, making a bit of a face.

Sixshooter laughs, "That'd be a neat trick, considerin' the terrain and the ocean… yeah we could go by moon bridge from caern to caern, but Morrison's dealin' with the joys of crossin' territorial _airspace_. Don't want any little 'accidents' happenin' when we're gonna need everyone in one piece when we get there. Also don't wanna think what'd happen if Morrison got shot down…"

Okay, so the guy was a Silver Fang and they didn't always get along, but hell if he knew anyone else that could keep this bunch of nutcases away from each other's throats!

"Ah, right, right," Rettah said. "Russia, that's in Australia isn't it?" she said with a faint grin. "So what about me? I'm not technically in any of these tribes present."

Sixshooter grinned. "Unlike most a the rest of these yahoos, the Glass Walkers are ready to roll and seein' the company ya keep I guess you're stuck with us. We got boys comin' in from all over the country, and others waitin' around the world to take a special ride that got cooked up a while ago." Too bad Gadget hadn't had time to make it a mass transport system, but hey.

Rettah gave a nod and said, "Right-o. I've got no problem with that." She grinned a bit.

Overall it didn't look like things were _too_ disorganized, there were people running around sure but they were doing it in a structured fashion and with a purpose. Snarling and shouting could suddenly be heard from the direction of the center of the caern, and moments later two Garou in Crinos were manhandled by six others out along the path. One of the would-be combatants was sleek and pure white, the other was midnight black.

"Shit," Sixshooter muttered, "Won't that shit ever _die_?" He nodded to Rettah and Keytar, then wheeled to trot over to see just what's happening. He had the Rank, he had to use it.

Rettah nodded to him and stretched a bit, looking over to watch quietly for a moment. "Looks like we're in for the haul eh?" she said aside to Keytar.

"Yeah," Keytar replied quietly.

Keytar watched as the two Garou were separated by the six others that he recognized as the Silver Pack and Gideon's personal pack. Sixshooter started talking to the two of them, but even his schmooze wasn't enough to quiet the long-held ire between the Silver Fangs and Shadow Lords and the argument escalated until the Lord tossed out the words of a formal challenge. Sixshooter swore at that, then again as the Fang accepted. He motioned for the six to release the two of them with a gesture of disgust and stalked over to get the Master of the Challenge. Their society had some very rigid rules, and the two combatants behaved themselves while they waited, merely glaring at each other.

"You know," Rettah said. "You might say this isn't really my fight, this is _your_ family? Well, to me, it feels like I'd finally come home." She sighed softly. "For however welcoming people back on my own world might have been, and they certainly were not a lot of the time, I'd always felt out of place there."

Keytar chuckled softly, "I'm glad of it, babe, even if I maybe wish you'd hightailed it back to Torn Elkandu til this blows over, but…" He grinned and shrugged. "Can't say I'm sorry ta have ya at my back, either."

The Master of the Challenge arrived, a hulking brute who stands over seven feet tall and was built like a tank… but the light step and the mischievous expression gave away that the giant Irishman was a Ragabash. He consulted with the Fang and the Lord, finding out what the terms of their challenge were going to be… combat, of course, with the klaives each of them carried. Keytar winced at that, even with the taboo against killing in a challenge if your opponent surrendered, 'accidents' happened.

"Heh, you know I can fight at least," Rettah said, standing back and smirking faintly at what was going on. Like she hadn't seen that a thousand times before, far too many people whose foolish pride outweighed their common sense. But you couldn't save people from themselves.

"So does anyone else who was here when the Sept was attacked." Keytar grinned. "And you can always kick someone's ass if they give you too much trouble." He gestured over to where the two combatants were circling warily, the challenge having gained a considerable audience by now, and rolled his eyes.

Rettah smirked faintly. "Do people use Fire Magic much around here?" she wondered. "I just realize I've no idea what sort of Talents are usually used around here…"

"What Gifts people use depend on their Breed, Auspice, and Tribe," Keytar replied, "And Rank, natch, since the more powerful stuff can't be learned until you get to one where the spirits'll acknowledge you have the right to learn it."

A very weird system overall, that would likely translate to varying power levels of Omnimancy as an inborn Talent and specific 'Gifts' or 'spells' taught to use it.

"Kind of an odd system," Rettah said. "But don't some people generally have more of an affinity with some types of abilities than others?"

"That goes by tribe or species," Keytar replied. "Like the Glass Walkers do a lot of tech-related Gifts, the CoGs do a lot of people skills, the Gurahl do a lot of healing and teaching, Bastet do a lot of stealth and that kinda thing. My own little side gimmick is actually pretty rare ta see, just as an additional ability."

The combatants had started getting into it at this point, and it was clear that both of them are _very_ skilled with the nasty silver klaives. No one had an advantage as yet, as both had scored minor small cuts but nothing that would even slow a Garou down.

"I didn't realize I could do Fire Magic until I met the Elkandu," Rettah said. "Keolah read my aura and told me that she saw a lot of red in it, so I was taught how to use Fire…"

"I really dunno." Keytar grinned and shrugged. "Maybe a Theurge would know more about that side of things, or maybe not, it's hard to say. Probably the _best_ bet to find out more would be ta talk to one of the Gurahl, Boss Morrison, or hell, Old Salty. Gurahl are teachers and healers, so they might have some kinda idea, the other two have just been around long enough that they're sure to know _somethin'_ more about it."

The onlookers were getting pretty rambunctious by this point, the shapeshifters were always ones to love a spectacle and they were cheering for one side or the other… It wasn't really any surprise to Keytar that there weren't many cheering for the Shadow Lord, and he smirks, then blinked and looked over as the back door of the lodge _slams_ open and Gideon came storming out. "Uh-oh."

Rettah wasn't cheering one way or another, not really particularly caring about the fight. "Mh, trouble, and at least it's not pointed in my direction for once," Rettah muttered as she glanced over that way.

Trouble indeed, though Gideon looked calm to all appearances, he radiated an aura of repressed Rage that caused the _shapeshifters_ in his path to take quick steps back out of his way. He brushed the Master of the Challenge aside with a curt gesture and stepped into the dueling circle, silver flowing from the top of his head and rippling downward like water. 

"Enough," Gideon said, and the power echoing in his voice brings a momentary pause over the scene. He smiles thinly and steps between the two combatants who loom over him, but through some illusion seemed diminished beside him, and reached to wrench the silver weapons from their hands by the sharp blades. "We're at war, people," he said evenly, "There will be _no_ challenge during time of war, leader or not, is that _clear_?"

He certainly had quite the impressive way of getting his point across, Rettah thought. Not someone she readily cared to get on the bad side of. Though at the moment, Falk was still higher on that list. Right behind Sardill, Keolah, and Suzcecoz. The two former combatants didn't seem inclined to press the point and return to their homid forms, nodding stiffly in acknowledgement of Gideon's reprimand and only then does he return their weapons to them.

"Eeyaaaah, and that right there's the reason things have stuck together so long," Keytar commented, shaking his head faintly as the Sept leader dealt with the Master of the Challenge and then headed for the caern's heart.

"Mhmm," Rettah said, "Definitely don't want to get on his bad side."


	2. Musing on the Past

Though Rettah was hardly one to rush blindly into combat, she hated waiting where there wasn't anything that she could do. So she just took a moment to sit and organize her notes and journal entries, thankful that she didn't have to deal with inferior technology to do so anymore. Keytar grinned and dragged her off into the lodge to relax, get something to eat, and wait until things start hopping in earnest. There wasn't a lot _he_ could do either, not being one of the top dogs on the totem pole or anywhere near there.

Rettah was perfectly happy to get dragged along to eat and drink something. "Hate waiting," she muttered. "Oh well, gives me a chance to get my novel notes in order. For whenever I actually bother to start, you know, writing it."

The menu was a little more varied today, since there was so much more activity going on, and Keytar went with a hearty steak and all the trimmings to sate his hunger. Betty took their order and returned a little later to deliver it.

"Just coffee for me right now, thanks," Rettah said, sighing a bit. "Feel like I've been eating every time I sit down for five minutes lately."

More like she was too on edge to have much of an appetite at the moment, but… Didn't seem to have affected Keytar's appetite in the least as he dug into his meal with gusto, maybe he was looking to add some of that mass that Salara had mentioned.

After a bite or two, he quirked a brow at Rettah, "So you've been takin' all these notes, have ya decided on what this novel's gonna be _about_ yet?" he chuckled lightly, more than happy to ease the overall tension, at least in their little corner.

"Nope, no idea," Rettah said lightly. "I'm sure I'll think of something eventually. Well, it's not really so much that I have no idea that I have far too many ideas."

"Well with all the weirdness we've been runnin' across lately, should be plenty a source material to get ideas from," Keytar chuckled and packed away another bite, "Action! Adventure! Wild sex! All the elements ya need."

"Oh, yeah, I could write a bestselling porno," Rettah said dryly. "See, the thing is, the difference between fiction and real life… fiction has to make sense."

"Since when?" Keytar smirked. "Ya ever run across Anne Rice and her 'Interview with a Lamepire'? Talk about your useless pieces of fictional trash."

"Yes, unfortunately. That doesn't mean it's _good_." She smirked. "I tend to prefer to write novels that do not inspire people to throw them across the room."

Keytar chuckled lightly, "Aw, why not? You could bill it as a fitness book, then, actually gettin' people to workout by hurlin' it around or takin' it out back to burn it."

Rettah snickered softly. "No, no, I'll prefer to stick to writing things people might actually like to read. Then again, people read some of the most retarded trash…"

"Hey, if there's a market out there for angsty poetry, there's a niche for any and everything," Keytar snickered, then grinned. "You'll have to get me somethin' ya wrote sometime, so I can see what you've done."

"Hmm, let's see," she said, pulling out her palm computer and bringing up some text on it and passing it over. "My first novel, the 'Wild Bor of Isserb'. Selrahc was amused."

"Amused why?" Keytar asked, taking the palmtop and scanning a little, "Personal experience, or something else?"

"Well, it's based on some people I knew, and not really a novelization of actual events, though it's loosely based on them. Admittedly, the main character was a blatant Mary Sue, but hell, I _was_ only a teenager when I wrote the thing."

"Hey, ya gotta give teens some slack, it's not like they're not hormones in tennis shoes or anythin'," Keytar chuckled, "And who or what's Mary Sue? Haven't run across the name in here."

"Heh. Well, a 'Mary Sue' is basically writing terminology for an overly perfect self-insert character. Notice the fact that her name is Rettah Eiram and she seems to be good at everything?" She chuckled.

Keytar laughed, "Ah okay, I gotcha, just hadn't run across that before." He grinned and shrugged lightly. "No worse than some of the other trash that people have put out there, and c'mon, you were a teen, that gets some leniency on the fantasizing level."

Rettah chuckled softly. "Suppose."

The novel depicted the great warrior Rettah prancing through the forest, slaying evildoers with her magic sword, rescuing the innocent, and saving the day. It also, for some reason, included a battle fought entirely with golf clubs.

Keytar readed a bit and passed it back with a chuckle, "No worse than a lot else I've seen in the movies…" He grinned. "But then Hollywood was gettin' really desperate for a while there."

Rettah chuckled and drank her coffee. "Yeah, does make me look like something of a narcissist though." She put the computer away. "Three novels, some various short stories, a bunch of stuff I never finished, a couple computer games, some poetry, a few songs, and any number of notes on things that I never actually bothered to start."

"And another in the works that you'll add to the collection of stuff to let gather dust?" Keytar teased lightly.

"Probably," Rettah said, smirking faintly. "I have not actually completed a novel in four hundred years. So I keep meaning to do that… and keep getting just a little bit sidetracked."

Keytar grinned a bit. "Can't imagine you sitting around and pounding out page after page of type, dealin' with an editor and publisher, and lettin' the world pass ya by. Why not just clean up and toss out some of the journals you've made? I'm sure people might like to hear about some of that."

"Suppose so," she said. "That's the trouble of trying to write novels when your life ends up being far more interesting than the novels…"

"Hell of a lot better than havin' to churn it out 'cause you've got bills to pay," Keytar finished his steak off and sat back with a sigh, sipping at his coffee.

"Heh," Rettah said. "That'd be awfully dull. Hmm, yeah, I suppose I could work up my journals, put in some more details and flesh things out a bit more, heh, funny thing is, if I tried to publish them for the most part on Anda, they'd end up being shoved into the fiction section anyway as nobody would ever believe the things really happened."

Keytar laughed. "Yeah well, they say that truth is stranger than fiction, and damned if I don't believe it some days. Certainly better than bein' bored, pullin' the nine-to-five gig."

"Though I suppose it's just as well, if they toss it in the 'fantasy/science fiction' shelf it's no skin off my nose," she said, shrugging. "You know, there are Elkandu capable of altering people's memories or putting them in a vivid hallucinatory state where they'll believe just about anything was happening…"

"Heh yeah, there's leeches who can do that kind of thing too," Keytar replied, "And I think it's the Fianna that have a gift that puts you in a whole other world. Definitely not somethin' to cross if they're pissed off at ya."

"And one of the few Elkandu who could do it and was inclined to, was Jami," Rettah said. "I have to wonder that he didn't mess with my head a bit more than I think he did when he had a chance to. Thing is, see, I have … conflicting memories. For some things, I remember completely different things happened on a certain date. Though, Jami was _good_ , he'd have made sure I'd never notice if he had, but…"

"Like what?" Keytar wondered, "And could it be part of that whole time travel headache you were talkin' about?"

She shook her head. "Time travel just creates a new timeline, it doesn't randomly give you memories from other timelines. Although the Temporal Convergence might have had something to do with it. _I_ didn't care to go off killing my alternates, but they all disappeared when the timelines got merged again…"

"Huh," Keytar mused and took a thoughtful sip of his coffee, "From all the bad old sci-fi you'd think that more than one of ya couldn't exist in the same timeline, think that has somethin' to do with their disappearance?"

"No, and scifi got it wrong," she said, smirking. "People from alternate timelines or from the past or future _can_ co-exist. I know of more than one case where people did so for years without any problems. All the surviving alternates disappeared."

Keytar grinned and shrugged. "Hey, don't look at me, I'm no temporal scientist, just seems weird that all the others disappeared without a trace."

"Well, see," Rettah said. "When the timelines converged, it was originally that there were actually eight versions of the universe that could be reached through normal teleportation. Why eight, I have no idea. They were all similar but with marked differences, sometimes some of them even being in different points in the timeline. One of them was during the Age of Rogue Winds, at least one had never experienced a Planar Wars, one had been completely taken over by demons, etc."

"Sounds like a real blast," Keytar replied drily, "Or more like a good reason to stay the hell in bed in the mornin'."

"Heh. I think it really says something about someone's character that when certain people found out there were alternate versions of them, they immediately plotted to kill themselves. Their other selves that is," she said, rolling her eyes.

Keytar made a face, "Right, either some real suicidal tendencies or the old Highlander syndrome, 'there can be only one'. Sheesh, that's pretty messed up, seems it'd make more sense to get yourself together and do… well, whatever you plan on doin', but with fourteen extra pairs of hands."

"You'd think," she said. "Just imagine what would have happened if there were eight Fantasias running around…" She paused. "Okay, that's a horror too terrifying to imagine, and I don't even know her very well."

Keytar just looked at her in horror and shudders, "Geez, ya really know how to brighten the day, don't ya? Brrrr. Eight of any Ragabash is _way_ more than enough!"

She snickered softly. "At least there weren't eight Jamis, I don't think. Well, one of them was a submissive sex slave being mind-controlled by a dominatrix Kirren. That was bizarre."

"Kinky," Keytar smirked. "Though that sounds more like Darksong's kinda gig… minus the mind control of course." He chuckled, "And you say _this_ place is screwy and has some of the worst tourist traps?"

She snickered softly. "Hey, we haven't visited the Abyss yet, remember?" She grinned a bit. "Nor Pandemonium, although that Fields of Chaos place was pretty close…"

"They can _keep_ those fields," Keytar snorted lightly, "Let them and the purity nazis duke it out for the place, that's just a little too bizarro for me."

Rettah chuckled softly. "Yeah, now all they need is to get some chaotically-inclined folks into Seka to stir things up a bit and they'll be all set. Well, Taike wasn't so bad at least. Aside from one guy out of ten looking like they'd bathed in toxic waste."

"Just goes to show that looks don't make a monster," Keytar replied, reaching over for the carafe to refill his coffee and then adding way too much sugar and cream. "Mm," he sipped and continued, "Most monsters look just like normal people, those're the real scary ones."

Rettah nodded in agreement. "Oh yeah. Most definitely. Jami, Rhuan, Sardill, Aitur…" She sighed a bit and drank her coffee some more. "Not to mention all the wonderful things otherwise reasonable people will do to one another if they think they'll benefit from it."

"Or just for the hell of it." Keytar nodded, then grinned. "But hey, if people didn't suck then the earth wouldn't probably stop spinning and lose it's gravitational pull just in sympathy."

Rettah snickered softly, stretching a bit and pulling out her computer again. "Hmm, let's see, this one's pretty old, but what do you think, how's it look?" She handed it over toward him. The text up on the screen at the moment described when she first discovered she was a werewolf and met Selrahc.

"Now _that's_ always an interesting tale," Keytar replied, reading a bit of it. "First Change is generally pretty traumatic even for those who _know_ they're shapeshifters, it can be a real 'fun' adventure when you're talkin' a lost cub or someone else who has no clue for one reason or another."

"Uh-huh," she said, leaning back and drinking some more coffee. "And damn I had no clue."

Apparently, Rettah's mother was named Eiluj Eiram, and her father was Tchim Rolias. They both seemed to have been pretty puzzled about their daughter, but at least they _knew_ what werewolves were, it wasn't like they were still trying to hide from everyone at that point.

"Heh, at least you didn't have to worry about some mutant freak shapeshifters runnin' around lookin' for fresh meat to 'recruit'," Keytar said, "'Course that was back in the bad old days, but," he shrugged and read a bit more. Eesh, talk about some names…

"Yeah, that woulda sucked," Rettah said.

Selrahc, at least, was very helpful, although apparently she got some very odd looks when she turned up in the Ettemalli Gorge, carrying a laptop.

"Overall doesn't look like you had it too bad," Keytar remarked, smirked faintly, "Though the bit about the laptop's funny, get some of the same looks from other tribes, depending on how 'with' technology they are."

"Heh, I wouldna left home without it," Rettah said, grinning. "No matter what the hell they said."

The story went on to describe Rettah's horror to discover that not only did they not have electricity, they didn't even have running water. Or port-a-potties.

"Geeez," Keytar muttered, "Sounds like a damned Red Talon caern, or maybe one of the _really_ backward Uktena or Wendigo. Ugh." The idea of the basic living essentials for a Glass Walker tended to include a lot more gadgets than most people had.

It then proceeds to detail the bold endeavors of the clever Rettah to get electricity and running water installed if she had to do it herself, and ended with her cheerfully sitting next to a fireplace in a cave typing on her laptop with an electric lamp, and her very own toilet off the side.

Keytar grinned over at her. "Atta girl, now all ya gotta do is some redecorating, maybe pour some concrete and put in some panelling, the place'd be just like home… well, have to get a widescreen and satellite connection, natch."

Rettah giggled softly and said, "Yeah, had to wait a couple years for all that. At least I didn't need to have to worry about my laptop's batteries much. At least until a werebear stepped on it." She winced.

"Agh, poor thing!" Keytar commiserated, then snickered. "Of course I'm referrin' to the laptop. I don't wanna think what it'd be like to be stepped on by a Gurahl." They were even larger in their warforms than the Garou, by about half as much. Very impressive stuff.

"Yeah, it was terrible," Rettah said. "At least I had backups, and I got a new one in a couple weeks later that was like ten times better. But still. It was a good computer."

"Here's to old friends," Keytar lifted his cup in toast and took a hefty swallow of coffee, sighed as he relaxed bonelessly.

Rettah concurred and drank her coffee. "Yeah, I might be a fricking werewolf, but damned if you're gonna catch me camping out in the middle of nowhere without a toilet, indoor heating, TV, and some way to roast hotdogs."

Keytar smirked. "What, you don't have a hankering to go out hunting some fresh deer, rip it apart with claw and fang, and eat it raw?" He shivered. "I had to do that once, once too often. Gimme a burger any day."

"Well, there _is_ that moose story Ylanwad keeps insisting on telling," Rettah said, smirking. "Nope, nope, unless I'm starving to death, I'll much prefer my meat cooked, thanks."

"Hell, even most a the lupus around here would agree on that," Keytar smirked. "Metis cubs, well…" He chuckled lightly, "They'll eat anything they can get their teeth on, the rat and rabbit population are kept really under control out here. Of course that's another reason they love 'He Who Cooks', he'll take anything they bring in and make somethin' out of it for em… Never have had the guts to try the rat soup." He smirked.

"But no, the moose…" Rettah began, "Agh. I don't know whose bright idea it was who insisted that we needed to know how to hunt large game, I'm sure they meant well but…"

"Probably the same braintrusts who decided the Glass Walkers needed to," Keytar smirked. "I suppose that it's a good thing in a pinch, but c'mon, we're tough enough and have enough energy reserves that it takes a month or more to starve or even weaken!"

"Not much danger of that these days anyway, especially for you," she said. "As for me, well, did you know Elkandu-made bags of holding keep their contents in stasis, so you can keep food in them literally for centuries and it won't spoil?" She grinned innocently.

Keytar snickered. "What'd you do, dump the doggie bags for the last couple years in there to save for a rainy day?"

"Heh, something like that," she said, snickering. "I've got several whole pizzas in there too, a couple dozen bags of fast food, hell I don't even know what all is in there…"

"Happen to drop in the kitchen sink and the plumber who was workin' on it at the time?" Keytar grinned, then waved it off, "Not a bad idea really, I'll have to pass it along to some of the boys as a suggestion."

"Quite the handy thing," Rettah said. "I generally try to keep my bag well-stocked with supplies and anything I might need. Okay, so I'm not sure what purpose I could put a pogo stick to, but if I ever need one for some reason I'll be glad i have it."

"I'm sure I could come up with some lewd and wholly-inappropriate joke for that, but I'll be good." Keytar grinned innocently. "Never can tell when the weirdest things will come in handy, I remember when an old piece of Bazooka Joe bubble gum got this wraith to go away… he was jonesin' for a memory, heh."

Rettah chuckled softly. "You wouldn't believe some of the powerful magical items some Elkandu keep in their pockets and forget about them, too… I mean, sure, it's good to have them out of the hands of people who might abuse them, I suppose, but honestly now…"

"Pfft, if ya ain't gonna use it, may as well lose it," Keytar said. "'Course you do somethin' like that to a _fetish_ and you just might find it turns around and bites ya in the ass one day. The spirits that get bound into them get pretty pissy about bein' ignored."

"Heh," she says. "Most of their enchanted items aren't sentient… but there's a few of 'em, well, like the sword Zarnith… The Chelseers like to tell the story about how this powerful enchanter Zarnith forged and enchanted up a mighty sword, and then as he was like really old at the time, he trapped his own spirit in it to grant his power to future generations."

Keytar nodded. "Yeah, sounds like some of the Grand Klaives runnin around, like this one called Moonshadow… think you know the owner, too, Shenzel. Story with that one's interestin', includin' the part about the First Ronin and the three Incarna that're bound into it. There's a few things runnin' around here like that, and some stuff that's just lost."

"But the Zarnith doesn't like being ignored, not at all, and if it doesn't like what its owner is doing, it'll just vanish and reappear next to another chosen heir. Hawthorne generally has it, but I've seen it in recent years in the possession of Azale, Suzcecoz, Keolah, and Theryn, for a while."

"Yup, powerful artifacts like that are nothin' to mess around with," Keytar agreed. "If you're _lucky_ they'll just go someplace else, sometimes the spirit's a bit more malicious and starts gettin' ya into more trouble than you can handle."

"Then there's things like the Ten Rings, which were destroyed during the Planar Wars, the Mind's Eye Amethysts, the Shadowshiv, the Daggerstone, the Crown of Sorcery, Dreamfeather, Elwin's Pike…"

Keytar chuckled. "Don't get me started on a listing war, babe, going from top to bottom would take at least a few days, and the GWs have a database on all the artifacts that're known." He grinned.

She snickered softly. "Hey, I was only listing the more _interesting_ ones that I know of. I'm sure the Eyes of Truth has quite the list itself, for that matter. Well, I don't know what ever happened to Elwin's Pike, but the rest of those are still around somewhere. I heard about Dreamfeather during the Temporal Convergence, apparently it had been sitting in an attic for decades. Someone named Tarna Tanson has it now."

"If you want 'interesting', you should check out the ones that the leeches have running around." Keytar smirked. "Not many of em, but they're, uhhh, definitely interestin'. Y'know, made out of stuff like human skulls and fingers, or leech fangs. Well okay, so we use a leech's tongue for a fetish ourselves, but hey."

She snickered softly. "From what I read about it, Tarna had gotten a house for cheap because they'd thought it was haunted, but as it turns out, the house wasn't haunted, the sword was, he just couldn't manifest more than fifty feet or so away from the sword apparently. Thing had some very interesting properties involving the Dreamworld, as it seemed to exist in both planes at once, and it allows levitation at will too."

"Any time you start mucking about with the spirit world, things're gonna get weird," Keytar chuckled. "That's just the nature of it."

She nodded. "And the Daggerstone, well, apparently it skips around through space and time, so it might appear anywhere at any time, and you can't really predict where it might end up. The Shadowshiv, now _that_ was a nasty artifact. It doesn't wound, it kills, even so much as a nick is enough to kill most people in minutes…"

"Mm, sounds pleasant," Keytar replied. "About as much so as the fang daggers that show up from time to time."

"At least that one hasn't turned up in some time, probably ended up in somebody or another's pocket who isn't too inclined to use it all the time," she said. "Oh, it's even worse on metamorphs too. It's death-poison spreads even faster and will turn them into a little hissing puddle of black goo."

"Oooh, you're just _full_ of charming tidbits today, aren't you?" Keytar snickered. "Oh well, it's not like I expect to live forever anyway."

"Yeah, apparently, Aitur got metamorphed at one point, and that's what they did to him that time… Least it was an effective way to get rid of him. Well, even if he _did_ come back later. Hmm, and Elwin's Pike was an enchanted dragonslaying spear, it was the one used to kill Scregor, of course, he tends to not stay dead either…"

"Never deal with a dragon," Keytar chuckled. "At least you'd better be sure to check the contract through thoroughly before signing it. Most of the ones around here just do their own thing, whatever that may be, no real affiliation with any group of supernaturals. The Great Wyrms, on the other hand, those bad boys help us out now and then as you saw during the attack. I'll be surprised if we don't see some of em when we get to Russia."

That was where they'd started out anyway, there'd be little shock to see them returning for an encore.

Rettah nodded in agreement. "I wouldn't be surprised if Scregor or another dragon were behind the fact that the Pike has disappeared at some point or anther." She smirked faintly. "And hell, between Scregor and Hawthorne, I'd almost pity those Keruir or whatever they called themselves who were aiming to cause trouble."

"Might not be anything left for Trigger to deal with, huh?" Keytar chuckled. "Well I guess he'll have to just deal with not being able to use the more direct approach and settle for nuking Keru."

"Well, let's see. You've got a fricking _dragon_ , and somebody swinging around the most powerful magic sword known to the Elkandu. No, I don't think there'll be much left of them except the really sneaky ones smart enough to run for the hills and burrow themselves in when they see em coming."

Keytar smirked and shook his head. "That's the kind of thing that he's been dealin' with for however long, doubt the sneaky ones'll make it either."

"For him to deal with I mean," Rettah said. "While Hawthorne and Scregor can be very effective at times, neither of them knows the meaning of the word 'stealth'." She snickered softly.

Keytar chuckled. "They'd probably get along just fine with the Ahrouns, then… though their definition of 'fine' generally means no less than three open brawls a night." He smirked.

"Heh, yup, that sounds like 'em alright," Rettah said, snickering some more. "I remember during the recent Chaos invasion, Scregor was running after anyone he _suspected_ of sympathizing with Chaos with an axe…"

"Ooh, sounds delightful," Keytar snickered, "Now that's the stuff of nightmares for a Lord of the Rings fan, getting chased around by a dwarf with an axe."

Rettah chuckled softly and said, "Indeed. Except that dwarf can turn all huge and scaly if you piss him off. Someone asked him once why a great and mighty dragon like himself would choose to walk around as something so small most of the time… his reply? 'Doorframes'."

"Makes sense, and probably why the ones around here do it," Keytar replied. "They do seem fond of their worldly comforts, overall, and can't say as I blame em. I'm sure a pile of treasure sounds good as a bed in fantasy, but it'd suck in the real world."

Rettah chuckled softly and nodded. "Yeah, really, I bet it'd be all pokey and pointy, give me a real mattress anyday. Or at least a nice cuddly werewolf to curl up on top of." She winked at him.

"Well I suppose there's worse ways to be described than nice and cuddly." Keytar grinned, the expression quirking a bit as he went on, "We'll just have to hope that what's goin' down doesn't put a sudden and unexpected stop to things, eh?"

"I'd hope not," Rettah said, chuckling softly. "But better than a drawn out and melodramatic end to things, eh?"

"Dunno, I'm rather partial to the whole 'drawn out' thing myself." Keytar grinned. "Just keep right on drawing, if you please, no particular reason to get kicked off the wagon on my account."

Rettah giggled softly. "I'd hardly go seeking out being killed, but hell, if it's my time to go, who am I to argue? The Elkandu came up with all kinds of things from resurrection, soulstones, soultraps, even past-life memory restoration, all because being unaffected by old age apparently wasn't good enough…"

"I'll keep it in mind." Keytar smiled faintly, then looked thoughtful. "Huh, I wonder if that's where the sick bastard got his return ticket? I remember the story at the last throwdown of how he got killed in Torn Elkandu…"

"I must have missed that one," Rettah said. "What exactly happened to him in Torn Elkandu?"

"Heh, never trust a fox." Keytar smirked. "Seems Fantasia's the one who tracked him down and killed him, followed him home with one of his 'dinner dates' and suckered him to going to the door to deal with some cops." He snickered, "'Course there probably aren't any such things there, but _he_ didn't know that, or that there was a fox runnin' around that he shouldn't turn his back on."

"The hell was he doing in Torn Elkandu in the first place?" Rettah said, raising an eyebrow. "Seems like everyone and their mother is stumbling on the Nexus these days. And no, the closest thing you've got to 'cops' in Torn Elkandu is when a bunch of Warders turn up and decide to break up a fight by throwing up wards everywhere so nobody can do anything."

"No clue what he was doin' there, other than lookin' to make trouble," Keytar replied, "Seems he ducked out on a joke she was playin' on him sixty or so years ago by hittin' the Umbra and takin' the low road through the Abyss. Musta run across some portal or other that took him there, and she just followed."

"Possible certainly," she said. "So what happened after that? You mentioned something about a fetish being destroyed?"

"He had this crystal that he kept with him all the time," Keytar replied, "Artifact that he got from Malfesia as a token of favor from the Wyrm when it was still totally nuts, called a Vortice Stone. It allowed him to open up these portals from the Umbra and suck Banes through into the physical as shock troops… and let his 'pet' Nexus Crawler cross over more easily. Musta lost the Crawler somewhere along the way, which is _good_. The other thing it did was hold a part of him if he was killed, though that part wasn't known until the fourth or so time that it'd happened. He hung out in the thing and when one of his minions or some other unsuspecting sap picked it up, it gradually possessed and transformed them into him."

"Hum, like a soulstone on crack sounds like," she said thoughtfully, listening over the description with a frown. "So what happened to it then?"

"Apparently she got this guy she brought along with her to destroy it," Keytar replied, "Morin, think his name was, and then she gave the chain and mounting the Boss Morrison as a keepsake. She's just lucky the Nexus Crawler wasn't still hangin' around him, or she probably woulda bit it. They do somethin' a hell of a lot like the Chaos magic in Keru, warping reality."

"Morin, that fellow who was hanging around with them when they turned up in the Crux?" Rettah said, remembering the encounter. "Ah, right, I remember he was in the Void Magic event at the last competition… that'd do it alright, focused weave of antimagic and antimatter would've torn it right to pieces…"

"Maybe." Keytar shrugged. "Or maybe it just went back to where it started out at. Evil artifacts tend to be as stubborn and difficult to destroy as more benevolent ones."

"Real Void Mages are rare as well, and it's a damned good thing because they're scary," Rettah said. "Destruction magic doesn't just break something apart, it makes it stop existing…"

Keytar chuckled and shrugged. "I dunno, just seems that bad pennies are always turnin' up again someplace. Though who knows, maybe chasin' the bastard all over the Umbra and trackin' him down to Torn Elkandu was considered 'quest' enough to actually do it."

"Well, we'll find out for sure soon enough I suppose," Rettah said, grabbing some more coffee while she was at it. "Though, actually, even if the thing was destroyed, that doesn't mean his soul was. He could've been reborn normally and some well-meaning Elkandu restored his memories or something… And a Chronomancer aged him up so he's not wetting diapers… Unlikely but possible too."

"Or could be somethin' weirder," Keytar said, "You always gotta wonder when you're dealin' with a Theurge, they're the ones who're the deepest into the mystical side of things among the Garou, and that's what the crazy bastard was, is, or whatever. Especially worrisome in that he'd stayed alive for a hell of a lot longer than anyone other than a leech could manage… well, or a shark, and he did it through pacts with the Wyrm."

"Hmm, there's that too," Rettah said. "I know perfectly well that even before her little ascension, Suzcecoz could survive the destruction of her physical body even without the help of magical items. Some other Elkandu Soul Mages are capable of such as well, though usually not so easily and sometimes not even intentionally… We call those 'wraiths', not sure if the term is used the same way here."

"Well there's wraiths runnin' around," Keytar replied, "but they're the spirits of someone who dies and for some reason decides that their business isn't finished on the earth. Some are relatively okay, others are really twisted and sick suckers."

"Well, a strong enough Soul Mage generally knows that they can avoid being sucked into rebirth if they want, though most of them aren't strong enough to remain in that condition very long before they have to possess somebody or something or get sucked off, without assistance at any rate…"

"Sounds kinky." Keytar grinned, the chuckled, "Seriously though, I wouldn't put it past the bastard to have another plan in the works, everything I ever read about him suggested he thought more like a leech than a BSD or Garou. Plans within plans within plans…" He rolled his eyes.

Rettah gave a nod and said, "Oooh yeah. Jami was like that too. He was paranoid as hell even knowing that if he got killed he could probably get his memories restored, but that wasn't always perfect, so he created these memory orbs and imprinted a full set of memories on them set to activate when they recognized his soul pattern touching them… He made dozens of the things… They ended up scattered all about… Most were damaged beyond use during the Planar Wars, one of them even fell into the hands of a hapless Catalyst who got it to activate for him and mistakenly thought _he_ was Jami…"

"Oh now _there's_ a pleasant thought." Keytar grimaced. "Just what we'd need, more than one of the twisted bastards running around. I doubt he'd have left that angle uncovered if he did it, though, he sounded like a huge megalomaniac." He smirked, "He'd probably have been one of the ones to go out and kill any of his duplicates."

"Jami did do that," Rettah said, smirking. "And nothing good happened to the fellow who thought he was him, either. Last I heard, though, Jami had the soul of one Sharina Kell trapped in a soulstone and was torturing her for several years in his basement. Admittedly, Sharina Kell only betrayed him and, to quote Shazmar, 'hacked the source code of the universe' to make herself effectively God, but I don't think she really deserved that."

"No one generally deserves that," Keytar agreed, "Better to kill them outright or imprison em if they might come back."

"Though I can't say Sharina exactly _intended_ badly… She made rebirths linear so people weren't getting reborn into the past anymore, and banned time travel and a bunch of other stuff… She really seemed to be _trying_ … She was just, well, way, way over her head…"

"Trying to play The One would generally be a bad idea, yeah," Keytar chuckled, "Not that there haven't been people who've tried."

"There've been plenty of Elkandu that tried," Rettah said. "She was probably the one that came closest of late. And Shazmar claims that he 'let' her as a 'test' of some sort. Fine, he'll say any damned thing, it's not like anyone can really dispute it."

Keytar snorted lightly, "That'd be like disputing what Gaia herself says, not that she's one to go around looking for people or doing obvious things… that's what us peons are for," he grins.

Rettah snickered softly and nodded. "Yeah, nobody's any idea what the hell Shazmar is _really_ up to most of the time, but it all seems to work out in the end… One way or another…"

"Ours is not to wonder why…" Keytar chuckled and refilled his coffee, then glances over as a shadow fell across the table.

"Ours is to obey and die," Sixshooter finished the old quote with a grin as he pulled up a chair and sank into it with practiced weariness… it wasn't like the robotic body could get tired.

Rettah nodded to him in greeting and took a drink of her coffee. "What's up?" she asked, leaning back in her seat and looking over to him.

"Looks like we're headin' off to war," Sixshooter replied with deliberately lightness, "Transports to drop in tomorrow at eight a.m. and set off for the great blue yonder, so you better get some rest if ya need it. Glass Walker reinforcements'll be comin' in by other means." He grinned.

Rettah gave a nod and checked the time briefly. "Well enough," she said, sighing a bit and drinking some more coffee and wondering how she could even think about sleeping at the moment.

"Anyway, there's a buncha the wiseguys that'll be up here in time for the takeoff," Sixshooter said, pushing back to his feet, "Stick with them, they'll know what's up." He nodded to them, then headed back off to start passing word, just as the other Elders were doing.

Rettah drained her cup and looked over to Keytar. "Guess I'll have to see about that sleep thing," she murmured. "Interdimensional jet lag, oy."

"Probably a good idea," Keytar agreed, quirking a smile, "Lemme know if you'd like some company, even if I'm not the least bit tired I can at least be sociable." It was odd, he really _wasn't_ the least bit tired, maybe some other metamorph side-effect, he didn't know.

"I wouldn't mind, though I doubt I'd be getting much actual _sleep_ that way," she said, winking and standing up.

Keytar smirked, drained the last of his coffee, and stood, "Only if ya want, babe, can always just curl up on a nice cuddly metamorph for a nap instead."

"Heh, what, morph into a bed or something?" She chuckled softly. "Well, if you like," she said with a grin.

"Cute, real cute." Keytar smirked. "Lemme see if there's any room in the inn tonight, probably got people camped out all over the place." He headed over to check with Betty, who smiled apologetically and shook her head. "Figures," he muttered, walking back over to Rettah, "Guess that leaves hittin' town for the rest of the day or sleepin' out in the woods."

"I'm not going to suggest morphing into a tent," Rettah said with a smirk.

Keytar grinned. "Nice cozy sleeping bag, maybe?"

"Whatever, screw it," she said, yawning and heading for the door. "Don't care."

Keytar grinned and followed her out, then grabbed her elbow and headed off for a clearing, "May as well head back to town, and do it the way the crow flies, we can come back up in the morning."

Reaching the open area, he transformed to the ultralight and cracked a door open for her to board. His building _did_ actually have a helipad at the top, so it'd work. Rettah shrugged and nodded and climbed aboard, settling in for the flight, still a bit nervous. It had been a while since she'd been in anything that might be called a real war. Sure, there was the Chaos invasion of Lezaria, but she was on Terra at the time…

Keytar handled the flying this time around, the trip into the city taking far less time than it would have via road even at the speeds he drove. He thought about it, but then decided against doing a high-speed 'canyon' run through the skyscrapers on the way in, instead slowing to a more sedate speed to enter the city and make their way to his building and land on the pad at the top.

"Here we go," he said quietly.

After she debarked, he transformed back and nudged her in the direction of the elevator shack. She headed inside. She hadn't really been that tired before, but she knew perfectly well how to sleep when she had to and wake up, even if she'd prefer otherwise at times.

Keytar led the way back down and let them back into the suite, closing the door behind them. "So you gonna be okay?" he asked quietly, looking at her concernedly, "Not used to seein' ya this quiet."

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. "Just used a little mental technique I'd picked up at some point to make myself tired enough to sleep, preferable to making myself _not_ tired when not necessary and paying the price for it later…"

Keytar smiled. "Alright then, let's get you to bed and sleep, all tucked in and curled up." He grinned and really couldn't resist, shifting his appearance to look like a nirril and scrambling over to look up at her and emit a cheeky, cheerful 'Bleh!'

Rettah giggled softly and poked him before heading in to sleep. Keytar scrambled after her and shapeshifted back to his normal form to keep her company while she slept. Rettah curled up and was asleep in moments. One of the reasons she hated waiting, it tended to make her far more nervous than just being tossed into a situation with little to no preparation. At least with the latter she was too busy trying to get out of it alive to worry about it and by the time she had a chance to worry there wasn't much left to worry about.


	3. Flight to Hell

Keytar spent the night searching through the Glass Walker database, going over tech specs and considering options that could be used as a metamorph. He didn't stir, keeping her company throughout the night as promised, and occasionally just watching as she slept.

Come dawn, and an internal alarm clock, he reached out and shook her gently, "Wake up, babe, time to get ready," then climbs out of bed to hit the shower.

Rettah grunted softly as she stirred and stumbled off likewise. "Do I get a gallon of coffee too?" she muttered, rubbing her eyes.

Keytar laughed and detoured to the kitchen, "I'll get some brewin', you go ahead."

No Salara showing up to cook breakfast, but then he wasn't sure he wanted that universe's equivalent of the Machine getting embroiled in this anyway. Messy, very messy. He set some coffee on and ambled his way back. Rettah took a quick shower and went to grab the coffee to wake herself up. She thought she was a bit out of practice with this managing to wake up whenever she wanted bit. Keytar was a little longer in the shower, enjoying the hot water, but ambled out in good order to collect a cup of coffee as well.

"Mm, should pack some doughnuts into my bag of holding the next time I'm out," he said, for just like old Mother Hubbard, the cupboards and refrigerator were bare. He smirked and ducked to give her a quick peck on the cheek, "How'd ya sleep?"

"Like a baby," Rettah said. "Well, no, babies tend to sleep by waking up in the middle of the night screaming. So I slept like a dog curled up in front of the fireplace."

Keytar chuckled softly, propping up against a wall to drink his coffee. "All good, then, and awake and nearly ready to go in short order. Plenty of time to get up there."

Rettah drank her coffee and checked the time, wincing slightly and saying, "Ugh, I hate being up this early. Oh well, no help for it." She drank down her coffee.

"Waaaaay too early," Keytar agreed cheerfully, deliberately keeping a light mood, "But then we've got places to go, people to see. What was that old saw? Join the army, go to distant lands, meet exotic people, and kill them." he chuckled. Morbid maybe, but the Garou really were used to this sort of thing since it'd been going on _forever_.

Rettah snickered softly. "Something like that, I think," she said, taking another cup of coffee and drinking that as well. "There was always one skirmish or another going on back home. Nothing major usually, just stupid pissing contests with swords."

"That's all this really is," Keytar replied. "Except the freaks on the other side really do want to see us messily dead. All part of the fun though, right?"

"Oh, yeah, it's always something. Nazi elves, Chaos cultists, insane shapeshifters, let's draw our bad-guys-of-the-month out of the hat why don't we…" She snorted softly.

Keytar chuckled softly, refrained from saying the first thing that pops to mind as they'd already covered that, "Probably work just as well as the current method, which I assume is pulling them out of thin air."

"They say in the Elkandu Universe, someone tries to take over the universe twice a year, with varying degrees of success. Turns out people are so used to it now that by this point the mensch just say 'yeah, whatever' and just keep doing whatever they were doing before and ignore them."

"Sounds about right," Keytar smirked. "You think the normal people are even gonna _notice_ what's going on? Not unless it fumbles and gets dropped in their laps."

"Sometimes they can't fail to notice," Rettah said. "That's when you know things have really gone to shit." She smirked, finishing up her coffee and stretching. "Shall we head to the frying pan?"

Keytar snagged her cup, rinsed it in the sink along with his own and set them aside to dry, then took a look around at the suite. He shook his head briefly, then grinned over at her. "Won't know what hit em, let's do it." He headed out to go back up to the roof and make their way back to the caern.

Rettah tried to let herself relax a little as she settled in for the trip. "And away we go…"

The caern was a flurry of organized chaos when they arrived, a number of large, sleek flying transports had already landed and were being boarded by the large numbers of shapeshifters of all kind who flocked to the call. Several Elders were directing the loading and unsnarling slowdowns when they occur, while lesser ranks made sure people were secured inside the utilitarian cargo bays. People would be left behind to tend and protect the caern, of course, and it was a couple of those stay-behinds that were watching over the small horde of metis cubs that were staring at the people running all over the place and not understanding what was going on.

Rettah climbed out once they'd landed and glanced over gently toward the cubs for a moment before looking about to see where they were supposed to go. They were right on time, it would seem that the transports got there early and started getting people chivvied onto them.

Keytar touched her shoulder and pointed over to one of the transports where a couple of black suits could be seen, smirks, "I think that's our ride." He headed off in that direction, waving as they got near, "Hiya boss," he directed to the first Glass Walker Rettah'd met, Stopsign.

Rettah nodded and headed over along with him and waved in greeting toward the other. She tried not to think too hard about what might be ahead.

"About time you showed up, late night?" Stopsign asked with a thin grin. "Don't answer that. Hop aboard and find a seat, then just hang loose til we're ready to go. Say your prayers or whatever else you need to do to get ready, it's going to be about an hour flight and a hot drop."

Rettah smirked faintly and said, "Right then." She headed aboard and goes to went a seat.

The transport looked like it carried maybe four hundred passengers, so with the other four that would make around two thousand going on this little jaunt, not counting whatever other reinforcements might be on the way through the Glass Walkers. It would appear that they were definitely taking this venture _very_ seriously. There were still about half the seats empty at this point, still loading the rest, so they could settle in wherever they liked. A good mix of Glass Walkers and other shapeshifters were their fellow passengers, most of them either quietly calm or in good-natured high spirits. One contingent didn't appear to be taking a seat, though, twenty or so who were moving around with silent expressionlessness, pacing. Rettah took a seat by Keytar, glancing over toward the ones pacing curiously. She was still nervous, although hiding it well, and wasn't too sure just what made her so uneasy about this entire thing.

Keytar groaned under his breath as he settled in beside her, "Great, Rokea, this is gonna be one _looooong_ hour flight."

One man sitting near the pacers turned to look at Keytar with unblinking, dark eyes, clearly having heard the comment.

"You wouldn't want to get bored would you?" Rettah said with a smirk, elbowing him gently and looking back toward the one looking to him.

"Course not." Keytar grinned, then huhs at her attention getter and looked over. He offered a weak smile as he saw who it was. "Uhh, hiya Salty, no offense."

The man just looked back for a moment before replying flatly, "None taken," then returned a decidedly sharklike smile.

Keytar largely hid the twitch.

"I have a pick-axe in my pocket if you need to dig your foot out of your mouth," Rettah offered lightly.

Keytar smirked. "Gee thanks."

Salty chuckled deeply, appreciating the humor of the situation and her response to it. "There is no need of that, I was merely teasing."

Rettah chuckled softly and inclined her head toward him politely, then said mostly to Keytar, "Say, have I told you about the time me and Ylanwad decided to take a trip to Nietor?"

"Does this involve moose or nirrils?" Keytar asked with a quirked grin.

"No, though we got there just fine, we ended up taking a slight detour on the way back that ended up with us stuck on a sailboat for three months."

Keytar groaned, "Oh you poor, poor soul, that had to be _hell_." The very thought of it is enough to make him shudder.

"Yeah, let's just say, Ylanwad is a far worse sailor than she is a warrior," Rettah went on. "Then this shark showed up and kindly informed us that we were around three thousand miles from where we intended to be."

Keytar snickered. "And you didn't feed her to it?" He was only half-joking, considering the things that he'd seen the sharks eat without flinching… hell, even eating a _leech_ didn't phase them.

"Welll, I was tempted," Rettah said, grinning innocently. "But I opted for making her gut fish all the way back instead."

"Fitting, very fitting." Keytar nodded. "This was before you knew about the Nexus, I take it?"

Rettah gave a nod. "Yeah. We must have been like, eighteen or nineteen at the time… We'd originally headed over to Bangsqueak to visit my dad…"

"I still say that's a really _stupid_ name for a town." Keytar grinned. "And that they really need to get better transport options going. I mean c'mon, a _sailboat_?"

"Concur," Rettah said. "Or, as Ylanwad insisted on calling the thing, a 'yacht'. It was not a fricking yacht. It was a leaky canoe with a sail attached to it."

"To recall a phrase from younger days," Salty broke in, clearly having been listening as the loading continued and was nearly done, "Yum! Bite-sized fun."

Keytar looked at him oddly, not sure if the shark was joking or not.

Rettah snickered softly. "Thankfully, we did eventually get home, with some help. Although he _was_ wondering why the hell a couple werewolves were sitting on a leaky canoe in the middle of the ocean. I was wondering that by that point too…"

"This flight will be departing in five minutes," a voice drawled over the intercom, "Please fasten your safety belts and return all trays to the upright locked positions. Thank you for flying Gaia Airways."

Keytar wasn't the only one in the bay to snicker or outright laugh at that, and there was a small rush of movement as the sharks restrained their instinct to move and settled for the next few minutes at least. That lasted for all of two minutes past takeoff, then they were back on their feet and moving again as the transport streaked along with its sister ships to cross the world.

The flight was smooth and uneventful, the tension that might be expected from normal people almost entirely missing among this group of shapeshifters. Yes, they knew they might die, but that was a truth they woke up with every morning… this was just another day as one of Gaia's Chosen. Roughly an hour later, there was a warning over the intercom that they'd be landing soon, the pilot's voice sounded very, very grim…

Reasoning for that was discovered as the transport set down and people began to unload, more than one pausing a moment in shock as the landscape impacted on them. It looked like hell, or more aptly some Dali-esque version of it, the land twisted, blackened, and warped, with what looked like an odd forest in the distance. A closer look made those who checked wish they hadn't… thousands and thousands of impaled people.

"Shit," Keytar muttered.

Rettah frowned deeply and murmured, "Bloody hell." A bit of flame flickered about her unbidden for half a moment, but she kept it in check with some effort. That effort wouldn't be much when she came into sight of any she thought might be responsible for this all, however.

Adren rankers and higher started going through and organizing people, they had dropped far enough away that they'd have time to do so before the enemy could bring out a reaction force. It went swiftly, though, and Rettah and Keytar found themselves in place with a pack of eight wiseguys. At a signal, shapeshifters began to transform to various forms to prepare for the couple mile run while small jeeps were brought up for the sharks.

After seeing the Rokea into their transport, Salty levitated into the air and then transformed into the monstrous Chasmus form, an over ninety feet engine of destruction, and 'swam' through the air above them as the army moved out. Their path was headed for the grisly forest, and as they near they could see the wreckage and rubble of what must have once been a city… razed to the ground and twisted almost beyond recognition.

Rettah went along with them as directed, steeling herself. People would die for this, certainly. She hadn't been like this in the Battlefield, surely. She had taken that all as not really real so much as a particularly nasty holodeck program, and known beforehand how it'd turn out. But this? This was real, and didn't know if they would win, and if they did, at what cost…

As they approached the 'forest', a silver-pure howl resonated from the center of the rumbling formation where Gideon and the Silver Pack were, and a sense of well-being and determination folded itself around them all, a thin veil of light leaping from soldier to soldier and leaving a faint glimmer in its wake. Sensitives among them would know that a powerful defensive field had been gifted to each of them… and then the enemy was spotted.

There were _thousands_ of the bastards, their massed force even larger than Gaia's own, augmented by the black presence of foul spirits that hadn't been seen in this realm for decades. A weird, ululating howl emerged from the countless throats and the unholy mass boiled forth to do battle. Their progress didn't even hesitate as a few thousand more appeared suddenly on the field to join the Gaian crew, Gadget's promised reinforcements.

The front ranks met and blood began to flow, the battle quickly turning into a mad, swirling free-for-all, each side equally implacable and determined, though a strangely-fae mood seemed set on the forces of darkness. A chill power grew slowly as the battle turned into fierce contests of Rage and hatred and death, cloaking the field in a choking miasma. Perhaps it was the arrival of a handful of Nexus Crawlers, multi-legged alien spirits who turned and twisted reality around them, reducing one enemy after another into bubbling goo or worse… and perhaps not. There were other Powers working in the background, ones that could be felt but weren't immediately visible.

Rettah headed on with her group fearlessly, her fur seeming to be on fire and more than ready to fight. Her own part in this might be small, she thought, but she'd gladly do that part without hesitation.

Casualties mounted on both sides, the wounded knowing there would be no quarter and continuing to fight as long as they still breathed. Even with their greater numbers, the foul army was no real match for the better trained and spirited Gaian force and were gradually worn away… but at a horrific cost. The underlying presence of an uneasy and unwholesome magic grew stronger as the battle continues, black tendrils rising from the earth…

Enemy after enemy crossed Rettah's path, but with her own skills and the augmenting magics surging around her she remained largely unscathed even after becoming separated from the pack she'd been assigned to and unable to find any sign of them in the swirling chaos. She was a bit concerned about that, but at the moment she had a few more pressing matters at the forefront of her mind. Flames surrounding her and flying from her, she worked on cutting down what enemies she could and doing her part even as she let a scan run to try to find Keytar.

At last the battle was nearly done, and even as Gideon recognized the foul power that had been building he knew that there was no way to stop it now… The final warrior of darkness fell, a mad shapeshifter with the pure white fur of the White Howlers… but it died with a warped, triumphant laugh. A ragged cheer rose from the throats of the Gaians at their victory, then fell raggedly to silence as even the least-sensitive felt… Something. Something evil and very powerful, the tendrils of magic formed of the death energies of the slain and their souls fueling something monstrous, forming into a swirling vortex above them.

"Freee…" whispered several voices from the heart of the maelstrom, then four lights streaked away to different compass points… one black, another a sickly green, a third a pale and unhealthy gray, and the final a bloody red.


	4. Fighting for a Home

The vortex continued to swirl overhead, dark power lashing out at the behemoth Rokea in the sky and sending Salty tumbling backward end over end to crash into the ground. Glowing eyes opened in the storm to look down with chill malevolence on them all and a faint impression of leathery wings unfurled…

"I am returned, and I thank you all," came an oily, self-assured voice, one that Gideon knew all too well.

That's Not Good, Rettah thought. The first thing that sprang to mind is the Chaos gods, but they were destroyed, and that wasn't quite right. The moons of Mezulbryst… Death, Famine, War, and Pestilence, she thought. What the hell? Okay, whatever the hell was going on here was WAY out of her league, and she just tried desperately to find Keytar in this mess before everything went further to hell.

On the plus side, the malefic presence vanished a few moments later after letting the realization sink in, disappearing with an unpleasant chuckle that promised bad things for the future. The Gaians, for their part, begin going through and tending their wounded, the dead would wait. Rettah found Keytar looking none the worse for wear, the metamorph's natural resilience plus the defensive boost served him well. He was moving through and checking for any signs of life among the wreckage of bodies, and ruthlessly dispatches anything he found that wasn't one of their own.

Rettah let her flames dissipate and said his name and went up to hug him before joining his efforts. "Damn crazy what the fuck…" she muttered.

Keytar was glad to see her and returned the hug before going back to the grisly work, and replied quietly, "Sounded like the recordings in the archives on that crazy bastard we were talkin' about. Hell if I know how he did it or what those other things were…" He wasn't a healer but there are plenty of others who are, including Gideon who was passing slowly among the troops to aid in that regard and to offer a gentle boost to morale.

"I don't know, but they reminded me of the moons of Mezulbryst," Rettah said. "Which were themselves named after something a bit further back… Death, Famine, War, and Pestilence."

"Oh shit, the Four Horsemen." Keytar grimaced, crouching down to check for a pulse on a black-suited figure and then shaking his head. "That's not good, not at all. They might not have been real at one time, but humanity's dreams and beliefs can make some really damned powerful spirits, like the Patriarch."

Rettah gave a nod and said, "That's damned well what it looked like to me… What the hell just happened here? Ugh, and you're probably the wrong person to ask that too." She sighed.

"Sorry," Keytar replied with a strained apologetic smile. "Definitely not the one to be askin' that of, and that ones that _would_ know are the Theurges… who're also our primary healers."

Rettah gave a nod and said, "Time enough for questions later. I _knew_ something was bothering me about this entire thing, something just didn't seem right… Damn."

"Yeah, and I think this," Keytar flicked his eyes around to indicate the battlefield and the impaled forest, "is just the warm-up. Sonuva…" he sighed, then shifted an arm to a silver blade to drive into the throat of a feebly-twitching BSD before moving on.

"Bad fucking news, in other words," Rettah said, snarling quietly. "This would generally be the point where you'd start calling in the big guns, but hell, seems like to do that you'd have to look for them in the next universe over…"

Keytar smirked and shook his head as he moves on, threading his way through bodies and bits of bodies. "Don't count the folks here out yet, babe," he said softly, "Ya don't really know what some of em can do, and what the Alliance as a whole can pull out when the chips are down."

"Well, I'm just thinking it seems to me the only way to be sure this bastard isn't coming back, is soulfire," Rettah said. "And I doubt anyone here knows about that, few enough people back home do…"

"You'd have to ask Boss Morrison or some of the others on that." Keytar shrugged. "Gaia's provided some really damned potent tools for those she's deemed worthy and able to use em."

"I don't know," she said. "Suzcecoz was the one who came up with it. And she kept it under tight wraps, made damned sure only a few people knew how to do it, because it's the only way the Elkandu know of to completely destroy a soul…"

Keytar sighed, smiles faintly, "Just because it's the only way that someone knows how to do somethin', doesn't mean that there aren't ways that other people have found to do the same thing. All I'm sayin' is not ta assume, there's more things out there than either of us have any clue about."

"I'm not assuming anything," Rettah said. "And I'm sure there's plenty of ways that might be used to do things. But it's _a_ way."

Keytar chuckled quietly, humorlessly, "Well until the people up top decide what's goin' on and what's needed, I'm not leapin' to any conclusions or goin' out to find someone else to do the job. Not my call, thankfully, this crap's bad enough."

Healers continued to move among the wounded, though there was little enough that they could really do that natural regeneration wouldn't other than to remove the poisons.

"No kidding," Rettah said. "Times I'm glad I've never been near the top of anything in particular. Don't know how they deal with it sometimes."

"Dunno, especially alone…" Keytar shook his head and went back to work along with the rest of them, the job of sifting through the once-living wreckage going fairly quickly.

The Gaians would be leaving several hundred dead here, but crews were gathering them together for the Rites to ease their passage to the Summer Country.

"So what's that leave us to do then? Damn well if I don't want to do _something_ if at all possible…"

"We'll know soon enough, I'm sure," Keytar replied, stretched as they met up with another searcher, and looked over to see that the work of collecting bodies was all that's left. Joy. He smirked faintly and goes to lent a hand to that duty.

Rettah likewise went to help as much as she could grimly. She knew perfectly well what the Elkandu could do about something like this, but she wasn't sure just what the people here could do. Time enough to find out, she figured with a sigh.

Time passed, the task of dealing with the dead and honoring them for their courage and sacrifice a lengthy one that serves to reinforce the bonds of those who yet lived. At last groups were arranged by destination and transported back out, leaving a healthy contingent behind to deal with the forest of human victims and look at cleansing the tainted caern, as well as Theurges to study precisely what happened.

Rettah and her contingent were returned to the Sept of Dreams along with a number of other groups which began dispersing on arrival to their own tasks or private mourning. Rettah went in quietly, already seeing about putting together a detailed journal entry of the events. Damned if she was going to shove it into some novel, but neither did she want what had happened here to be readily forgotten. She likewise made to attempt to overdose on caffeine. Coffee was always available in abundance, and in apparent preparation for the aftermath one of the house specials was available on the menu. Keytar grabbed a carafe and a couple plates of barbecued ribs and took them over to a table to relax for a while.

Rettah took a seat across from him and tried to relax with a bit of a sigh, shaking her head. "Guess I'd better eat, too, right…" she said, after vaguely remembering just when she'd last eaten.

"Uh-huh," Keytar motioned to the second plate with a small grin, "Gotta keep your energy up, that kind of thing really takes it outta ya." He shrugged lightly and poured himself some coffee, then began eating, even if the ribs didn't seem to have quite the zest as they usually did.

Rettah ate hungrily. "So what are we gonna do now, then?" she wondered as she ate.

"Hurry up and wait, natch." Keytar smirked. "Probably be a few days before anything's decided and the news filters down this far."

Rettah smirked as well and nodded. "Typically, yeah, I'd imagine so. Until then?"

"Whatever sounds good," Keytar replied lightly, "Duty schedules're probably gonna be pretty light until things settle out and get decided, so…"

"I'll not be suggesting a side trip to the Abyss in the meantime," Rettah commented wryly. "Nothin' sounds good, I'm just organizing some journal entries and such. This all reminds me way too much of the Planar Wars…"

"I really don't wanna think what those four powers are gonna be up to in the near future." Keytar grimaced. "All I know for sure is that it ain't gonna be good, and Jez'kai'll probably be worse."

"No doubt," Rettah said, swallowing a bite of food. "Looks like this is shaping up to be a real serious issue here… But damned if I'm going to go running and hiding over it all. The Eirams are supposed to be 'warrior-mages' after all," she said, smirking.

Keytar chuckled faintly, "Guess we've all got a bit of that, the shapeshifting breeds anyways."

"Yeah…" Rettah said. "Seems a bit silly to base your occupation off what your parents had. Then again, I guess it's no stranger than basing it off the phase of the moon…" She smirked some more.

Keytar shook his head, "There's some real effects from that on us shapeshifters, specifically our attunement with the Rage that's in all of us, and it definitely has at least a little influence on our natural inclinations. Ahrouns are full moons, for example, and they're the ones with the most innate Rage by nature."

"Heh," Rettah said, leaning back and drinking some coffee. "You think it affected me, even if we hadn't remembered anything about that for thousands of years?"

Keytar grinned. "Look at the kinda things you like ta do, that's all the rage with the Galliards. Story tellin's a big part of what they do, that and goin' out to _see_ new things."

"Heh… okay, I guess so…" Rettah said, smirking. "Wonder what that'd make Ylanwad, out of some curiosity…"

"I'm bettin' Ragabash." Keytar smirked. "Playin' the warrior and not havin' much success at it, mostly just wavin' her tinfoil sword around and bein' chased off by teddy bears? Oh yeah."

"She'd be offended if she heard you say that," Rettah said, snickering. "And only about the sword bit and not really the rest. Then she'd go off about how it's a great magic sword passed down through her family for generations." Rettah absently checked with a snicker and said, "Well, looks like you're right, it happened to be a new moon on that date."

"Now _why_ does that not surprise me?" Keytar smirked and rolled his eyes, "You can get an idea with most shapeshifters what they're like just by knowin' that little bit of information about em. Different breeds have other ways of goin' about it, of course."

Rettah chuckled softly. "What sorts of things do they do, then?"

"Ummm," Keytar sopped up some sauce with the thick, toasted bread and took a bite, scratched his jaw thoughtfully as he chewed. "Let's see, the cats go by time of day, daylight, dusk, and night, the sharks… mm, they're sorta daylight based too, though they describe it in terms of how light the water is. Most of em it's either sun or moon cycles, I guess, though there's variations and at least one that goes by season."

"I've seen some pretty random things through my explorations," Rettah said, munching some more. "I wonder what the _hell_ they do on Daresa then, there's no sun _or_ moon there, but there's a lot of shapeshifters there…"

"Could be anything from season to somethin' to do with the stars, I'd guess," Keytar replied, "Oh yeah, the Camazotz go by the stars, how could I forget _that_?" He smirked.

"I never much liked that world, really," Rettah said. "I mean, sure, it's a nice enough place, rather pretty, but it can be _miles_ to the nearest toilet, and there's exactly one city that even has electricity…"

"Ugh, think I'll pass on that one," Keytar replied. "Sounds like way too much of the dark and dreadful, and with that kind of influence I bet the shapeshifters are pretty, umm, backwards."

"Yeah… I've visited there a couple times, and they were even worse than the Ettemalli folks back when I'd first showed up there. Swear they must've been mostly lupus too."

Keytar snickered. "Hey, wouldn't surprise me, I mean think about it… you've got all this dead space layin' around, where the hell are human kin gonna move in and keep from goin' starkers?"

"Oh, there were some human villages around there too, scattered about," Rettah said. "Like fricking Dark Ages squalid little towns, hunter-gatherers living in mud huts. And no toilets!"

"Right, the rough and ready rednecks." Keytar smirked. "Yeeeah, I think I can safely say that goin' there would not be my kinda thing. I'd be too worried about hearin' banjo music playin'." he snickers.

"Indeed. Fesirya Kren's not so bad, that's a real city at any rate," Rettah says. "But the rest of the planet, forget about it."

"And one city does _not_ a fun planet to visit make," Keytar chuckles, "Unless you're talkin' one _huge_ megacity."

"Several million people, I think," Rettah said. "The name means 'Silver Towers', because it has these towers that shine like silver, although they aren't actually _made_ of silver. And they're really tall and the entire city's inside them…"

Keytar chuckled and pushed his plate away, having polished off the last of his meal, and sipped at his coffee. "Mm, sounds like just another arcology. Same principle they have for a buncha cities around the world, if a different design."

Rettah drank some coffee and said, "Something like that. Ten towers, the tallest one in the middle with the government offices and primary tourist traps up top, and the defunct Nexus there. There's Nexi in Iron City and Fesirya Kren that used to work but don't anymore since they're not in the Ethereal Plane anymore and weren't modified to be able to work outside it I guess."

Keytar hmms thoughtfully. "Y'know, speakin' of the Nexus makes me wonder just what Gadget did to pull that mass transit thing earlier…"

"Standard teleportation devices and portals _are_ a good deal easier to pull off than a full-blown Nexus though," Rettah said. "But if he's had access to the Eyes of Truth he's surely had that information available at least."

"No idea," Keytar chuckled and shrugged. "I've been into his inner lab a couple times and just ended leaving with the impression that I was in waaaay over my head."

"No kidding," Rettah said, drinking some coffee. "I'm more of a software person myself." She chuckled softly.

"There's as many specialties among the boys as there are types of tech," Keytar said. "I think Gadget's just one of those that does a bunch of them, and well. Seems like he's just kinda always been there whenever somethin' new came down the pike."

Rettah chuckled softly. "Sadly there just wasn't much call for programmers on Anda. I tried to run an MMORPG once, too. But that turned out to be kind of like trying to sell condoms in the Vatican."

"Vatican… oh, you mean that old Catholic historical site," Keytar chuckled. "Afraid I don't know much about them, that religion went out before my time. Not much use for it when people know about the livin' and breathin' Gaia, y'know?"

Rettah chuckled and nodded, and said, "Oh, yeah, the Catholics were weird folks… All about calling everything fun or sensible a 'sin' and all…"

Keytar smirked and shook his head. "People can be weird sometimes… hell, they're weird _most_ of the time."

"No kidding. I'm thankful that hokey religions never really caught on on the Elkandu worlds. Well, aside from occasionally worshipping random Elkandu."

"There used to be some here," Keytar replied. "And there's still some die-hards scattered around here and there, but for the most part people got around to realizin' that prayin' to someone who never answers and doesn't exist isn't the best way to go about life." He shrugged. "And it's not like Gaia demands anythin' from the normal people who follow Her, it's the shapeshifters that get the work." He chuckled.

"I think most people back at home realized that if you decided to pray to the God of Pink Fuzzy Bunnies, about the only thing you'd end up getting is Shazmar laughing at you in amusement…"

Keytar snickered, "I can just imagine. Thankfully Gaia isn't quite so, umm, flaky or inclined to get involved in day-to-day events, and neither is Luna or Helios. They're out there, they're watchin', but they don't actually do much of anything that we see." Of course that didn't cover things that they _didn't_ see, but hey.

"Yeah, Shazmar is um, interesting. Sometimes you might not hear a thing from him for centuries, then decides to pop in and do something, but usually you don't see him much unless you seek him out at least unless you're one of the top dogs in the universe…"

"Remind me not to bark too loudly." Keytar smirked. "Though I bet it's really not much different here, Boss Morrison… well, he's obviously got somethin' more on his mind than just runnin' _this_ place."

Rettah gave a nod, leaning back and finishing her cup of coffee, staring off and stretching a bit. At least the conversation had relaxed her somewhat after all the fighting.

Keytar leaned back and sipped at his coffee for a bit, smiling faintly, and broke into her reverie after, "Mm, so where's your mind wanderin'?"

"Meh, just thinkin'," she said, shrugging. "This place does seem a bit more organized than back home. How exactly does it all work?"

"Gah, where would I even begin?" Keytar wondered. "There's so many different layers and levels that it's hard to explain to someone who hasn't lived with it all their lives. It's like tryin' to get a handle on a whole new culture."

Rettah chuckled softly. "Would you rather I just download the manual into my brain?" she asked lightly.

Keytar grinned. "Manual? _What_ manual? I don't think anyone's ever put down more than a fraction of the stuff that goes along with bein' a Garou here, even the Silver Records layin' around are just history. I can help ya out, though, if you give me an idea of what you're wonderin' about specifically."

Rettah chuckled some more. "Yeah, I imagine there's plenty you folks take for granted here that'd really throw me for a loop. Even of the Elkandu factions, the one I was in was the _least_ organized. Would you believe that its great leader Ishane was actually elected by a game of spin-the-bottle?"

Keytar snorted lightly, "Definitely doesn't work that way here. Shapeshifters start out as cubs, and aren't even recognized as part of the society with full rights until their Rite of Passage when they achieve their first Rank, Cliath for the Garou. Each Rank you go up earns you the right to a little more respect, just because the _spirits_ recognize and respect you, and the Elders are known worldwide. They're also the ones who get stuck leadin' people around." He smirked.

"Huh," Rettah said, getting some more coffee. "So what are these 'Rank' things then? Didn't have anything much like that back on Anda… Although Tempest had some very confusing ranks based off colors and nobody could remember which color was which…"

"Ummm." Keytar stared off for a second, thinking it through as he took a sip of his coffee, then went for a refill. "Well, you get more Rank by doin' things that earn you Renown. Get enough of the various types, Glory, Honor, and Wisdom, and you can challenge someone who's a higher Rank than you to get it formally acknowledged. Win that challenge and they'll spread the word, lose it and you can't try again for a little while. It's a very real and important thing, though, since the higher you go in Rank, the more Gifts that the spirits are willin' ta teach ya, as well as having a definite rung on the ladder when it comes to who ya answer to."

"You're vocally capitalizing random words and I have no idea what you might mean by them," Rettah said, chuckling softly. "Needless to say, I don't really understand."

Keytar grinned. "Well, take this mornin' as an example, maybe a nasty example but a good one nonetheless. You fought well, didn't fox or berserk, and it wasn't even your fight… you'd get a good amount of Glory for the battle itself, and Honor for taking up the fight and answering the Alpha's call. They're really pretty self-explanatory, if ya think about em a bit."

"I see," Rettah said thoughtfully. "I think. Interesting." She drank her coffee and said, "Though where does that all leave somebody like me? I'm surely not from around here nor ever did any of that Rite of Passage business even at home…"

Keytar chuckled lightly. "That leaves ya as a friend of the family, kinda like the other shapeshifters are. See, a Garou doesn't _have_ to listen to a higher-Ranking Gurahl, for example, but dependin' on circumstances he might lose some Renown for it." He smirked. "There's a couple people those rules don't exactly apply to, but they're rare."

"Hmh," Rettah said, leaning back and staring off. "I guess."

"Of course the Rank system also has some protections built in," Keytar said, "A couple rules in the Litany that go along with it to lay down the law as to how it works, so to speak. Boils down to, a) Respect those who outrank ya, or they can pummel or strip your renown away, and b) Respect those of lower Rank, they're Gaia's kids too. Different breeds, well," he chuckled, "Each has their own, but the Boss enforces the basics."

Rettah nodded distractedly and said, "I see."

"I guess, I see," Keytar mocked teasingly, grinning slightly, "Your mind's not here, babe, where is it?"

"Wha?" Rettah said, blinking and looking over to him. "Oh, I'm listening. Just thinking, I guess. "

"Uh-huh, sure," Keytar chuckled, "So whatcha thinkin' about? Definitely not some borin' old anthropological study."

Rettah smirked faintly and said, "Heck no. I was rather thinking along the lines of more practical and personal considerations."

"Hold that thought." Keytar grinned, then went and got something more for them to munch on, returning a minute later and setting a second plate out for her as well. "Food for thought," he said lightly and settled back in to eat a bit more.

Rettah chuckled softly and went to munch thoughtfully. "I wasn't exactly just asking out of planning on writing a thesis or just idle curiosity."

"Uh-huh…" Keytar prompted lightly, quirking a brow as he munched on another rib.

Rettah smirked faintly. "I'd just hardly know where to begin I guess."

"Let's start at the very beginning, it's the very best place to start," Keytar sang lightly, the sound drawing at least a couple perked ears from various corners by metis cub and lupus alike, and he grinned as he trailed back to speaking, "So, where does that put ya?"

Rettah snickered softly and said, "Right here, in this chair, right across from you, eating."

Keytar snorted lightly in amusement, "Fine, fine, be that way, but remember ya can't just go around tossin' leadin' lines like that out, you'll get people all curious or hot 'n' bothered."

"Heh, sorry," Rettah said, leaning back and munching quietly. "You remember what I said earlier, that I feel like I've finally come home here…"

"Mm-hmm," Keytar replied leadingly, but says nothing more, waiting for her to spit it out.

"I don't really _want_ to go back to Anda for an extended stay," Rettah muttered. "I'd much rather be here."

"And?" Keytar looked honestly puzzled. "When did anyone say ya wouldn't be welcome here? Sure there'll be some hotheads that'll be the idiots they're born ta be, but for the most part…" He shrugged. "Garou are social sorts by nature, might take a little time to really get used to everyone and the reverse, but there's no reason ya can't stay if ya want."

"Well, yeah, I guess," Rettah said, drinking a bit more coffee. "But is that all I'll ever be? A 'friend', a 'guest', an outsider?"

Keytar shrugged. "Depends on how much work you're willin' to put into it. Gettin' into the daily grind is the way to really move up the totem pole, but that means a lot of general responsibility and acceptin' the demands or commands of others."

"Well, naturally," Rettah said, shrugging a bit. She's trying hard to look casual, but it was pretty clear she's anything but.

"Mmyeah, naturally." Keytar nodded faintly, managing to suppress a grin. "So what're you thinkin' on it? Check out what it's like to live up this way, or somethin' a little more on the city side?"

"Heh, what do _you_ think?" She snickered softly.

"Hey, don't look at me, I just work here… sorta." Keytar smirked. "Readin' a female's mind is _way_ outside my job description, and I wouldn't take it even for hazard pay."

Rettah laughed lightly. "Oh, no, it's nice and all, but I was always more of a city girl myself."

"Well hey, that works." Keytar grinned. "If the Glass Walkers'll take in a fox, they'll let _anyone_ in."

Rettah grinned broadly. "You have a point there." She laughed softly. "You think they would?"

"Pfft, please," Keytar snorted lightly and waved it off, "The tribe'll accept anyone who's willin' ta work with em, we even deal with leeches on a regular basis. I don't think you're _quite_ that low." He grinned.

Rettah chuckled softly. "Wellll…"

Keytar chuckled lightly, tilted his head, "Were you actually worried about that? Surely not."

Rettah gave a shrug. "Hey, I am, as you've pointed out on several occasions, female. We're irrational, remember?" She grinned at him.

"Noooo kiddin'!" Keytar smirked and rolled his eyes, then quirked a smile. "No worries on that end, honest to Gaia, I really doubt that any of the tribes'd turn ya down." He coughed into his hand, "Well maybe the Red Talons."

"I don't think I'd be worried about that at least," Rettah said, smirking. "They don't have enough fun toys." She winked.

"Oh sure they do, at least the ones that're more civilized like around here," Keytar snickered. "Y'know, rawhide chews, tennis balls, that kinda thing." Of course there was the occasional oddball that broke the mold and went a totally different path, but that was _rare_.

Rettah snickered softly. "Mm, no, I can find plenty of that back on Anda. But you better believe I never seen anything like the Glass Walkers back in the Elkandu Universe, for sure."

Keytar chuckled lightly, "Yeah, we seem to be a pretty unique breed, just look at the others we've run across so far, they tend to fit the old mold entirely too well." He shook his head mock-sadly.

Rettah finished up her food, already seeming to be in quite the better mood, stretching a bit. "So, then, what would I have to do for starters, eh?"

"Easy enough, just talk to the Boss or his Beta, Stopsign," Keytar replied easily, "They're the ones to get you set up and put in with a pack, if that's what you're lookin' for. Of course with me hangin' around, and the bat flyin' someplace around the Belfry, that's a pretty good start." He chuckled.

Rettah chuckled softly and gave a nod. "Arright then," she said, draining another cup of coffee. "Sounds good to me."

"Maybe we can even get away with not gettin' rounded out to five or six," Keytar said, "That's usually about the size a pack goes, but can probably wiggle out of it if you can sucker em into assigning special duties or somethin'."

"Heh," Rettah said, going for yet more coffee. "Forget becoming an alcoholic, I think I'm a caffeinaholic…"

"Nothin' wrong with that," Keytar replied, chuckling, "I'll only start worryin' when you get an intravenous line or start shotgunning espresso."

Rettah chuckled softly, leaning back in her seat and not in _any_ particular hurry to go do anything just at this moment, sliding her eyes closed and just relaxing for the moment.

"You musta really been uptight about that," Keytar commented after a few minutes of simply watching her, and smiled a little as he shook his head. "You look like you just lost about a hundred pounds off your shoulders."

Rettah snickered softly and looked over at him. "Well, yeah, something that'd be on my mind ever since I'd found this world…"

"Uh-huh, so you were just lookin' for a native guide to point you to the immigration officials, huh?" Keytar grinned lightly.

Rettah chuckled softly. "Something like that I guess."

Keytar chuckled, "I suppose I can live with that, though you might _regret_ makin' the move once they get their chrome claws into ya."

"Kinky," Rettah said, laughing lightly. "Mm, no, I think it's the right thing if I ever seen. Just feels right, you know?"

"Yeah, I know what ya mean," Keytar replied quietly, "It's just the feelin' that you're _home_ , the place that you'll actually stay and fight for rather than lettin' other people deal with the problem."

Rettah gave a nod and said, "Yeah, exactly…" She sank down in her chair and sips her coffee. At least she's sipping it now instead of guzzling it.

"Just watch out for Malcolm." Keytar grinned. "Give him the chance and he'll talk you right around into getting dragged into the zoo, too. You wouldn't believe the number of GWs who either volunteer there or donate to the cause."

Rettah snickered softly. "Mmh." She'd have happily gone rushing off to find the aforementioned leaders right now, but figured they'd probably got more important things to be dealing with in light of recent events at the moment. "Not to change the subject, but on another subject entirely, I've been putting together some more of my journal entries, what would you like to see next?"

"Whatever works, I'm flexible." Keytar winked.

"Oh, I know," she said innocently. "Okay, how about this one then." She passed over the computer, the text on the screen describing when she had first joined Tempest prior to the Planar Wars. Apparently it had involved her walking in, saying she wanted to join, and somebody replying immediately, 'Okay, you're a member now', and her saying 'What, that's it?' It also includes some amusing interaction with Suzy's castle-computer.

Keytar snickered. "Uh yeah, the GWs aren't _that_ laid back about their entry requirements, eesh. I kinda doubt they take walk-in appointments… though, come to think of it, that's where we end up with the majority of our lost cubs."

"Tempest was… very, very odd, even for Elkandu," Rettah said, snickering. "But it was preferable to Darkhammer at least. _They_ made you fill out like forty pages of paperwork, forms and crap… Damned demonic lawyers."

"Nah, that's just to gain access to the bathrooms," Keytar replied straight-faced.

Rettah chuckled softly. "'Course, after Ishane took office, he made a quick mind-probe just to make sure you weren't planning on doing anything too stupid standard procedure."

"Errr, right," Keytar snorted, "I think that'd be about the time that I looked for a new job."

"There _was_ a reason why I stopped being involved with them during the War of Planar Dominance," Rettah said snickering softly. "Conclave never had that problem, as their leader could tell the future, so he didn't _need_ to read your mind to tell if you were planning something stupid…"

"Well that'd kinda suck if you were plannin' on ditchin' the Saturday night raid for a hot date," Keytar snickered, "But at least it's not as bad."

Rettah reached over and changed the text once he's finished. This scene took place during the Planar Wars, an attack on a Tempest outpost by a Whitefire raiding party. Apparently, among those attacking them, there was a werewolf with completely white fur that she'd been thrust into combat with.

"Heh, don't let the Fangs or the Howlers read that one," Keytar said lightly, scanning through, "They'd probably bug the hell outta ya to find out if that was one of their own."

Rettah snerks softly. "Well, he _was_ trying to kill me at the time. Was a bit busy to make proper introductions." Apparently she'd wounded the Whitefire wolf but didn't think she'd killed him as she was drawn away to help another faction member, and by the time she had a chance to turn back, he was gone.

Keytar snickered and replied with deliberate quiet, "Yeah well, the Fangs are so hung up on their family trees they choke. You'd never hear the end of it if one of em got on the trail."

"Sounds like the Chelseers," Rettah said, snickering softly. "Damned if I know if they even existed anymore in that universe, but then, things got a little weird during the Planar Wars…"

"Well at least they're not inbreeding anymore." Keytar made a face. "Read some _real_ weird stuff in the Silver Record about some of em like that."

"… _Really_ sounds like the Chelseers," Rettah said with a smirk. "Except, they're technically dragons and not wolves. They claim all of their are theoretically capable of turning into a dragon, but most of them don't know how for some reason…"

"If they're into that kinda thing." Keytar smired. "Then they're lucky they can count past ten and have all their teeth, much less bein' able to shapeshift."

Rettah snickered softly, and reached over to bring up the Chelseer family tree on her computer's display. Or family kudzu, as the case may be.

Keytar looked at it, squinted, shook his head. "Looks like some kinda modern art rather than a family tree."

"Nooo kidding," Rettah said, rolling her eyes. "When an old 'legend' starts out with 'And the dragon seduced the elven king', you know nothing sensible will come of it…"

"Sounds more like some fantasy fiction I've run across," Keytar snickered, "At least _that_ doesn't deal with real people…" He looked at it again and just shakes his head slowly, "Crazy."

"And that's even before taking into account some of them becoming vampires. Who can turn into dragons." Rettah said, sighing.

"Ooookay then," Keytar replied, "And whose bright idea was _that_ , and who was it?"

"Streyka and her lot, namely," Rettah said, smirking.

"Uh-huh," Keytar said, "Well I have no idea what to say about that, other than to hope Darksong didn't get into more than she counted on." He snickerrf.

Rettah chuckled. "They're the most perfectly sane and reasonable leeches you could ever hope to meet," she said. "Apparently, they'll usually only embrace their relatives, too…"

"Y'know, there's just somethin' really odd about that," Keytar said, "I've run across that before, and I still don't understand why the hell you'd do that to someone you cared about."

"And that's why they call the Chelseers 'inbred dragon-shaggers'," Rettah said lightly.

"That kinda goes against the 'perfectly sane and reasonable' line, babe." Keytar smirked.

Rettah smiled lightly and said, "Hey, you've met her. But yeah. Got some really fricking wacked up things in that family. And to make matters worse, since they're descended from the elven king, they generally think it's their right to rule too."

"Y'know, they _do_ sound a lot like the Fangs." Keytar smirked. "Minus the whole 'lets turn our relatives into leeches' thing."

"Oh yeah," she said. "Never get them to start reciting their lineage. Me, well, I know who my parents were, and I know who my grandparents were, and I don't really care who my great-grandparents were as they were dead before I was born although I can probably presume there was likely a werewolf or two somewhere back there along the line…"

"Heh." Keytar took a sip of his coffee, grimaced as it had gone cold, then shrugged and downed it quickly before pouring a refill. "All I have is the Urquart horde, dunno who was responsible beyond that since they picked me up on a street. Can't complain for it, though."

"My dad was a sailor who knocked up my mom then ran off to sea," Rettah said, stretching a bit. "Though what he was doing in Nnud is anyone's guess, it's not like it's anywhere near an ocean… The Rolias clan are all seafarers by trade…"

Keytar chuckled softly, "Well give it a little time and you'll have an extended family like you wouldn't believe, including all those uncles you never talk about and the cousins ya can't stand."

"Oh, yeah, my uncle Tseswin used to compose sea chanties…" Rettah said. "And insisted on teaching me every single one of them…"

"Is that where you picked up that delightful Nirril Song?" Keytar grinned.

"Sadly, no," she said. "That was from the Neerual family in Needew. No, Tseswin was responsible for such classics as 'Come little fish into my net', which for some reason Ylanwad found simply hilarious…"

"Let me guess, she chanted them endlessly on your seaward hell journey," Keytar replied drily.

"Oh yes," Rettah said. "That song was supposed to improve fishing. In her case, though, I think she just sort of scared off the fish instead…"

"And you never thought of the revolutionary idea of using her for bait?" Keytar asked innocently.

"Well, I needed somebody to gut the fish and bail water," Rettah said, grinning. "After I explained to her that she could still do both of these tasks while wearing a gag, she shut up."

Keytar snickered. "Yeah, that'd do it. I uh don't suppose she'll be making her way this way anytime soon, will she?"

"Probably not," Rettah said, smirking. "Probably still afraid I'm going to try to assimilate her or something."

"I wonder if it'd help the cause if I dug out some old vid footage and got a good idea for morphing a Borg?" Keytar hmmed.

Rettah giggled. "Not sure why I'd ever want to be a Borg anyway. They're far too slow and clumsy and not particularly smart."

"But they just keep going, and going, and going, and…" Keytar grinned, then chuckled as he leaned back to relax. "Y'know, I'm glad you're lookin' at bein' a part of the family, it's nice to just be able to unwind and relax with someone."

Rettah smiled faintly and nodded, and said, "Yeah… especially after a day like today…"

"Yeah, especially that," Keytar agreed, "So you wanna go see if we can't dig someone up to make it official?"

"Certainly," Rettah said, grinning broadly.

Keytar drained the last of his coffee and pushed up to his feet, "Then let's get it done and you settled in."

Rettah stood and headed along with him, a little bit of nervousness rising again unbidden. She hadn't the foggiest idea what to say really. Sixshooter or Stopsign ought to be somewhere around the place, just have to track em down… in fact they bumped into Six almost immediately as they went out the back door of the lodge.

"Well hey, looks like you two came through alright," Sixshooter said by way of greeting.

Rettah nodded to him in greeting. "Yeah, think I got a fair few of them myself for what it's worth."

Sixshooter grinned a little. "Everyone did their part, that's what counts, and a kewpie doll to the lady who lent a hand when she didn't need to."

Rettah grinned faintly and said, "Well, there was something of that I wanted to talk to you about."

"Fire away," Sixshooter said, then chuckled lightly, "Night's not gettin' any younger, but that doesn't bother _me_ much."

"Welll, you see," Rettah said. "I've explored a number of different worlds, and through all of them I've never before encountered anything like the Glass Walkers. I feel like I've finally come home…" She sighed a bit.

"What is this, a Walton's moment?" Sixshooter smirked. "Out with it, what's eatin' at ya enough to bring it to me?"

Rettah smirked faintly. "Sorry. I was hopin' I might move in on a slightly more permanent basis. Where can I sign up?"

"Pfft, is _that_ all?" Sixshooter chuckled, made a sloppy sign of the cross in the air between them. "Yada, yada, yada, you're hired or some crap. Unless you're lookin' for somethin' more specific in the way of a job, that's about it."

Rettah coughed slightly and entirely failed to find anything to say, uncertain whether to laugh or what.

Sixshooter grinned, looked over at Keytar, then back at Rettah, "What, were you expectin' a formal contract or somethin'? We save those for the leeches. Look, I heard good things about you showin' up when the Sept of Dreams was attacked, and you stuck your snout in with that mess in Russia too, that's good enough for me. The tribe can always use new blood that's willin' to do its part for Gaia."

"Well, I'm certainly not complaining!" Rettah said, laughing lightly as she realized he was serious.

Sixshooter chuckled, "You're gonna have ta get used to the fact that the GWs are a hell of a lot more informal than most of these assholes, and that's the way we like it. Oh, that's not to say that we're not organized, we sure as hell are and run more like an old-style mafia family than anything else most of the time."

"Oh, certainly, I was just a bit startled by the similarity to when I joined the now-defunct Tempest back before the Planar Wars…" She smirked aside at Keytar.

"You'll learn, you'll learn," Sixshooter chuckled.

Keytar kicked in his two cents in a stage whisper, "Yeah, don't ever mention it when the Boss shows up wearin' his bunny slippers."

Six mock glared at him, "Don't you go dissin' my bunnies, pal, or you're lookin' for a serious beatdown."

Rettah just smiled, relaxing again and chuckling softly. "Well, I'll certainly hope not to disappoint… you or your bunny slippers." She grinned.

"Awright you two, drop by the office if you're lookin' for anythin' specific…" Sixshooter said, "Got a board meetin' to set up after the crap this morning." He shook his head in disgust.

"Sure thing," Rettah said. "And good luck with that…"

"Heh, good luck she says," Sixshooter shook his head and headed for the door into the lodge, "You two have fun, I know that's right out of my fuckin' schedule for a while." He vanished inside, and Keytar quirked a brow at Rettah.

"What?" Rettah said, looking back over to him. "Did I miss something?"

Keytar chuckled and shook his head, "Nah, that was more the 'did you hear that?' kinda look. Makes me wonder just what's up on the top of the pole."

Rettah snickered quietly and said, "At the moment, I'm not too sure that I want to know. And, well, he _did_ tell us to have fun, so let's go have sex."

"Hmm, I dunno…." Keytar replied with feigned reluctance, then smirked. "I wasn't raised by fools to turn down an offer like that. Anywhere tickle your fancy?"

"I'm not feeling overly picky at the moment," Rettah said, giggling.

"Don't say that, the woods are full of lupus," Keytar snickered. "Torn Elkandu it is, and maybe catch up with the crazy bitchbat somewhere along the way. Avoid the foxes at all costs, too." He smirked and Recalled.

Rettah grinned and did likewise, certainly there were plenty enough hidey-holes around there to keep one occupied for ages.

Keytar stretched and blinked as they arrive, the change from night to even lukewarm day a pain on the eyes. "Let's get out and down before any new trouble finds us, babe." He grinned at Rettah and trotted off for the nearest hostelry.

Rettah headed off there quickly, but they weren't fast enough to avoid a golden-hued three-tailed fox darting past them giggling madly over one damned thing or another.

Goldentail skidded to a halt as she recognized them from the Crux earlier and said, "Ooh, hi!"

Rettah groaned softly, figuring the other fox can't be far behind.

Nooo, Fantasia wasn't far behind at all, in fact she almost ran into Goldy going full tilt and only managed to avoid a collision by the breadth of a tail. She skidded to a halt and grinned over at their new old friends, and Keytar groaned just as enthusiastically as Rettah at their blasted luck.

"Back from Daggervale already?" Rettah said, figuring they must have had a blast with the flying cars, trains, gnomeflingers, and whatnot.

Morin came jogging along behind the two foxes at a more sane pace, panting a bit.

"Oh you know it, you wouldn't _believe_ the fun that place was!" Fantasia grinned brightly. "And it might even make a comeback in a century since we left."

Keytar didn't doubt that they'd caused havoc, even if just playfully, foxes were… not insane, just _crazy_.

"Uh-huh," Rettah said, smirking faintly at that image. "At least somebody around here was having fun…"

"Aww, you're not having fun?" Fantasia looked suitably sympathetic as she walks over to pat Rettah on the back, then grinned playfully. "You could always come with us for the next stop on our little junket, wherever that may be. A lot of people were suggesting we go to the Abyss, so maybe we should check it out." It was hard to tell from the glint in her eyes if she was joking or not… The demons would probably hope so.

"You might as well visit Russia, it wasn't much better," Rettah said dryly. She handed over computer showing a recording of the last little bit of that battle. She hadn't really gotten the writeup cleaned up enough yet.

Fantasia blinkblinked as she looked at the recording and turned the most astonishing shade as she sputtered and fumed, her tails popping out to twirl energetically about as she tried to come up with the words to express her sheer disbelief, outrage… "Why that… that… critic!" she manages at last and bares her teeth.

Rettah decided that the fox was a good deal less annoying that way. "And if you'd like details, you'll have to ask somebody other than me, because I certainly don't know what's going on, aside from the fact that it probably isn't good." She took back the computer and pocketed it.

"Oh I'm going to find out alright," Fantasia replied, eyes narrowing to slits and she growled softly, "Nobody, and I mean _nobody_ gets out of one of _my_ tricks that easily. He should know that by now, seeing as I already killed him once to prove it."

"You go do that," Rettah said lightly. "As for us, we're under orders to have fun. Tata." She gave a casual wave and went to walk away.

Fantasia obviously lost any inclination toward having fun at that news, and her tails twitched with vexation as she stalked back to the Nexus and put in the coordinates to return home.

Keytar muttered to Rettah as they walked away, "You just _had_ to show her that, didn't you? Now we'll have to watch out for falling foxes every day back home."

Rettah snickered softly. "At the moment, I'm not sure that I care." She dragged him off into the nearest cubbyhole for a little "fun".


	5. Fears for the Future

A few days passed without any real event, other than Darksong happened across them while they were in Torn Elkandu and promptly re-attached herself after hearing about what had happened recently in the World of Darkness. Rettah got a bit settled in and met, greeted some of her newfound family with all of their foibles and personality quirks, all in all it wasn't a bad place to be and the company's doable.

One night she blinked awake from sleep, a sense that something wasn't quite as it was when she laid down… Rettah blinked for a moment and went to get up, glancing about and wondering what was up, knowing better than to dismiss things offhand as just her imagination. Once she sat up it was hard to miss just what's out of place, namely a rather large man with dark hair held back in a ponytail sitting in a lotus position and levitating a foot off the ground near the door. He looked over at her as she stirred.

Rettah blinked for a moment and looked up at him. "Er, hello," she said. Whatever she might have expected, that clearly wasn't it.

He sank slowly to the ground and unfolded, then rose and studied her quietly for a long moment. "Do you listen?" the stranger asked cryptically, looking down at her with a blank expression… he stood well over seven feet tall and had the heavy-built physique common to the shapeshifters.

"I generally try to, yeah…" Rettah replied, looking up at him curiously.

"Look behind you," he said quietly, gesturing back to the bed where she saw herself still laying comfortably asleep. "This is a time beyond the veil, for there is much that must be discussed with one who would listen to the whispering of the winds, to the secrets babbled by the running streams."

Rettah glanced back, not seeming particularly surprised at what she saw, and looked back up toward him. "So it would seem. What, then, would you discuss with me?" She could take a wild guess, considering recent events.

"Come with me," he replied, extending a hand to her, "We may speak as you see that which was, is, and may be."

Rettah reached out to take his hand curiously, and said, "Very well."

As Rettah's hand touched the warmth of his, the world dissolved in a sparkle of light and is replaced by a velvety black field of stars with the blue and green globe of Terra spinning beneath them. It wasn't quite so peaceful as it should be, as arrowheads left contrails behind them in their passage around the world and their sudden, brilliant eruption of destructive light at the end of their journeys. Hundreds, if not thousands, of missiles, each of them enough to blanket hundreds of miles in radioactive decay and ruin, but they weren't even the worst by far… Other things lurked nearby, watching their handiwork on the world below as War erupted, nations were too weakened by Famine to stave off their aggressors, a virulent Pestilence which brought the dead to life, and the chill presence of Death itself…

Rettah winced a bit at the sight. She had already seen a world very much like it torn apart by cataclysm, and didn't much like the thought at all of it happening again, not when she had just gotten here and claimed it as her new home. But what could _she_ do about it?

There was one more, its presence known only through the malevolent and evil aura it projected and the mad glee it projected as greater and greater destruction was unleashed until even the earth itself was rent asunder in a slow, painful spasming which ended in an explosion that hurls the broken fragments into the Void. A dark cackle sounded as that death weakened Gaia's bonds and a new, dark God was born…

"This is what _may_ be," her guide said softly, sorrow written in his voice, "The plans of an age are coming to fruition, and if they are not successfully opposed… this is what _will_ be."

"Bloody hell," Rettah whispered. "What can be done about it? What can be done to stop it?" she asked, looking over at him again.

"It is not Gaia's will that this should come to pass," he said quietly, the scene shifting again to a sunlit savannah, a small pool of water providing a gathering place for the denizens of the place and the small, odd-looking jumble of ruins nearby providing shade in the heat of the day. "It is not, however, Her way to act directly, though it may cause Her ending should her children not suffice to the task." He walked casually toward the ruins, in no great hurry.

Rettah walked along after him quietly, looking about. "So what must be done, then?" she asked. Damned if she'd even think to hesitate or run away if there was anything she might be able to do to help.

"The forces at play are far older than any might imagine," he replied quietly, stepping into a shadowed arch of the ruins and continuing further in as the light dimmed around them. "That foul one knows, for he made pacts with evils even more ancient still, the Four which would seek to rend Gaia and are not the product of humanity's dreams as might be expected… they are a force far more primordial than that."

"… what, wait, they wouldn't be related to the Chaos Gods from the Warhammer universe by some chance, would they?" Rettah said with a bit of dread.

"There are elements which are the same in any reality," he replied, leading further still and the ruins changed their aspect around them, becoming a passage of some strange, greenish-gray material that was shiny like metal and yet felt warm to the touch. "These were awakened by the dreams of an elder race, one which had fled the horrors of their own home and were welcomed by Gaia. This," he gestured to the walls, "Is one of their places."

Rettah looked about, raising an eyebrow and frowning thoughtfully. She knew little enough of the really ancient history, as it was usually only the last ten thousand years that had passed since World War III that concerned the Elkandu much.

He smiled gently at her as they stepped into a chamber through a doorway that was far too broad and high to have been made for humans, the room a living, breathing thing with a dried fountain at its center. "You would not know of them, nor would any other save perhaps the eldest of the Rokea," he said quietly, "They were lost to the mists of time during the first age of the Mokole and the great dinosaurs. They were known as the Great Kings, in the myth and legend of the Mokole, who have only the smallest fragments remaining of them in their Memory."

"That was … a long time ago…" Rettah murmured as she looked around some more. She didn't like to think of the idea of a reflection of the Chaos Gods loose here. Bad enough what she had heard of happening on Lezaria…

"Indeed," he agreed, walking through the room to continue to a passage that led downward, "And their race went back further still, for they were old when they arrived after departing their home and the tyrannies of war and death. Their path was peace, and in a way they have found it." The downward passage was lit, brightly so, the light looking like nothing so much as the sun as it had been when they'd come down here.

Rettah continued to follow curiously, wondering just what all it was exactly that he was showing her, and what this all was leading up to.

"It is their past which made this present possible," he continued as they walked further into the depths of the complex, passing cross corridors along the way, "Though perhaps that's unfair as humanity itself may have awakened those sleeping evils through their own base inner nature."

"The potential for evil is always present…" Rettah murmured thoughtfully, looking from side to side intently as they moved on.

"It is for each to decide, whether to listen to the stirrings of the darkness or the gentler whispering of Gaia," he agreed, leading her past several more rooms that were equally strange and vibrant with life even after all the time that had passed. "They realized what they had done, however, and sought to make amends," his voice dropped to a respectful hush as they entered a final chamber, its walls made of glowing crystal. A globe of the same crystal hung suspended in the air at the center of the massive room, carved into a likeness of the sun and giving off warmth and light much akin to it. He stopped just inside and looked slowly around. "Within these walls lie the last of the souls of those who awakened the darkness, slumbering that they might never bring it forth again after they had imprisoned it."

Rettah looked about quietly, pensively. "So what happened then?" Rettah said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"The Great Kings devised a method by which the evil might be contained," he replied quietly, "and sacrificed their race to the task, even then was the darkness too strong for lesser measures that they could devise. They sealed it away, wrapped tight within a cocoon and condensed to a fluid state, then their souls came here to slumber in the peace they sought."

Rettah stared off quietly, looking and listening. She wasn't too sure what to say, if anything even needed to be said really.

"That evil has grown far stronger since, however," he continued grimly, turning to look at her, "Fed upon the misery of those who have lived and died since the time they were imprisoned, and energized by the sacrifice of suffering and blood which was offered at the altar in Russia, all unknowing. The method which was used against them before will prove insufficient now, and the foul one…" He shook his head.

"What, then, can be done?" Rettah said quietly, looking up at him.

"Though the artifact which was used to bind them will not do so again," he replied, "It may still drain them of enough power that other ways may be discovered to complete the task. The four pieces of that relic are hidden, and you will need find them, only when they are bound again may the foul one possibly be contained as well."

So, it was to be an Epic Quest to Save the World, then? Rettah thought absently. Well, she could deal with that. She nodded thoughtfully and said, "Very well. So be it then…"

"One fragment lies here," he replied and turned to point up at the globe. "Within its heart is the key you seek, and each piece of the relic is similarly-entombed. Re-unite them and the artifact will be renewed and prepared for the bidding of the one who would have the will, courage, and power to face them." He didn't say that it would spell the end of the remnants of the Great Kings, their souls tossed out…

Rettah looked up over toward the indicated globe and gave a thoughtful nod. She didn't question what must be done, or even why he'd come to _her_ and not somebody else. Not that she was exactly a random farmgirl of uncertain parentage or anything either.

"One may be found here, in the depths of Africa," he said. "Another rests in the heart of the rain forests of South America, the third…" He smiled slightly at a memory as he continues, "Is hidden with Ayers Rock in the deep outback of Australia, half in and half out of the Dreamtime, and the final sits beneath a temple in India. You will know of them when you grow near, so long as you listen to the winds…"

Rettah nodded as she listened, making mental notes of what he says carefully as she looked on thoughtfully.

"Should you prove successful in your task," he said quietly, "Then will you give the artifact to another, for though you may indeed have the courage and will for it there is a greater power required for what must be done."

She gave a nod and said, "I wouldn't doubt that…" She knew perfectly well that although she was no weak Fire Mage, she was certainly not particularly high on the list of great and powerful beings in the multiverse.

The world dissolved once more around them, and she looked around to find that they were back where they had begun.

"Be watchful," he said quietly, "For your work will not go unnoticed by the very powers you seek to stop, even now are they entrenched at each of those places of power, though they cannot enter them."

Rettah nodded some more. "I will be cautious…" she said, the first order of business for _that_ in mind to be making sure Ylanwad stayed on another planet entirely. Regardless though of her own confidence, she didn't think this was something she could manage alone, that would be foolish arrogance.

"Such thoughts are wise," he agreed with a faint smile, then nodded to her, "We will meet again, in this place should you succeed, and in the Summer Country should you fail." Without further word he splintered into countless shards and blew away on an unseen wind.

Saving the world, no pressure, right, Rettah thought. Well, damned if she was going to back down or do anything but the best she could. And time was of the essence, that she could be sure of… With the last whisper of breeze, Rettah felt herself drawn back toward her sleeping form and the embrace of sleep…

When she woke up, she promptly went to see about locating Keytar, damned well knowing better than to dismiss such a thing as a mere dream. Keytar wasn't difficult to locate, nor is Darksong, seeing as Rettah would have gotten settled in with them unless she preferred other arrangements and since they were an informal 'pack'. She'd certainly not have preferred otherwise, surely.

"Hey," Rettah said to them, grabbing some coffee. "I need to put together a party of heroes to travel the world searching for the four pieces of an ancient artifact in order to save the world. You guys up for it?"

Darksong blinked as she padded over to the coffeemaker in her robe with a yawn and poured herself a cup. "Mm, not before breakfast," she said, lifting the cup in display, then took a deep appreciative sniff before drinking.

Keytar just chuckled and went to get a fix himself.

"Yeah, breakfast first," Rettah agreed, taking a seat and leaning back with her coffee. She'd said it so casually one might wonder if she was even serious.

Darksong was deadly serious about her comment, not being a morning person at the best of times and certainly not until the first cup of coffee or, mm, other stimulant. Keytar drop lazily into a chair and kicked back to sip at his coffee, sighed contentedly.

Rettah stretched casually, drinking her coffee. The world might need saving, but it certainly wouldn't help to start out half-asleep. "Mmm, coffee…"

Darksong chuckled lightly and takes another appreciative sip, then glanced at Rettah with a faint smile, "So what is it that had you wound so tightly, hmm?"

"Hmm, what?" Rettah said, quirking an eyebrow. "Oh, I was serious."

"Oh?" Darksong quirked a brow in question, and Keytar tilted his head to look over at Rettah attentively.

Rettah went on to summarize the 'dream' she had had last night. She could generally tell that it wasn't just any dream, but she was pretty sure that she wasn't just having delusions of grandeur.

"Umm, the guy in your dream sounds awfully familiar," Keytar said after she relayed it, and looks over at Darksong for confirmation.

Darksong was the older of the two by quite a bit and was far more mystically inclined, and after a moment's thought she nodded slowly, "Not so much man as spirit, I think, the soul of one who was Ascended in the turbulent times surrounding the Unification Wars. Whisper, his common name… There is another, but that was one which he held in life."

"Well… he certainly sounded serious about it," Rettah said, drinking her coffee, though that they recognized him tended to reinforce that she wasn't delusional.

Keytar digs around the GW database a bit, and ah-hahs as he found what he was looking for. "This the guy?" he asked, shunting a copy of the file over to the other two. The man in the image looked a little different, more worn than Rettah remembers him being, but it was definitely the same person. The file identified him as a Ronin Shadow Lord by the name of Rudolph, metis, and listed some very interesting details.

Rettah glanced it over thoughtfully and gave a nod and said, "Yeah, that's him…"

There was actually quite a lot of information on him, though the dates were all at least eighty years past. It would seem that he was quite the active seeker of knowledge and brought a great many things to light for the Garou, despite his steadfast adherence to remaining Ronin. The final entry dealt with the tale which had been told regarding the destruction of the First Ronin, the key that had allowed the Wyrm to begin to heal again. What happened to him was very vague, though various reports suggest edthat he was drafted directly into Gaia's service on his death to serve some unknown purpose.

Darksong hmmed softly as she skimmed over the information, "Surely not complete, but a decent enough summation," she said, looks to Rettah, "He doesn't appear without reason, and is rarely seen at all."

"Well, yeah, it sounded like he had a pretty good reason there, what with the saving the world bit and all…" Rettah said, drinking her coffee. "And I'd really rather not see the world destroyed either, I just got here and all…"

Both of them could readily agree with her on that, and nod to show it.

Darksong smiled slightly, "So even though you're just newly-arrived, you're eagerly looking forward to leaping into the fray and seek out these mysterious pieces of an equally-mysterious artifact, never mind that these 'Four' will be sure to cause great difficulty along the way…" She shook her head in fond amusement.

"Certainly," Rettah said. "Imagine the sales for the novelization of it! Provided I survived at any rate." She smirked faintly. "But no, seriously…"

"Sounds like somethin' that definitely needs doin'," Keytar commented. "Though I'm not sure I like the idea of what these 'Great Kings' did to take care of these damned things in the first place." He smirked. "And you'll notice he didn't say anything about the bastard behind it…"

"Uh-huh," Rettah said. "Not that I'm entirely certain why he came to me about it in the first place… after all, I wasn't raised on a farm, I know who my parents were, I'm not secretly descended from royalty…" She smirked "But I'm certainly not going to argue or bugger off," she added.

"Gaia works in strange ways at times," Darksong replied thoughtfully, "and while it may not make sense from our perspective, it may be completely logical as part of a grander scheme."

Keytar grinned over at Rettah. "And hey, maybe all the moisture farmers are workin' on other things right now."

Rettah chuckled lightly. "Well, be that as it may, it's been dropped in _my_ lap, and I damn well mean to do the best I can, but I doubt I could manage it alone."

"Well yeah, that's what a pack's _for_." Keytar smirked. "You think either of us would let ya run off loose on somethin' like this? Notta chance."

Darksong smiled lightly and nodded once in agreement.

Rettah grinned and said, "Well, I'm glad to hear that, certainly." But first, she went to see about a breakfast slightly more substantial than coffee, now that she was well awake from it.

Keytar yawned broadly and got up to get another cup of coffee, then dropped back where he was, showing no real inclination for food just at the moment. Darksong finished her cup and strolled off to take a shower. Rettah went back to sit down again with another cup of coffee and a couple slices of buttered toast to munch on. No use saving the world on an empty stomach eh? Keytar went through another cup before Darksong reappeared.

Darksong had gone with her 'working' clothes which consisted of a simple black jumpsuit and boots, her hair tied back with lacquered black combs. She walked over for another cup of coffee, added sugar, and sipped at it, "Mm, I wonder just how much these Four will be putting in place to keep things under control?" she wondered.

"Holy shit," Keytar muttered in shock, having just checked in with the newsnet…

Rettah raised an eyebrow and looked over, but didn't anticipate seeing anything good. "What is it?"

Keytar just shook his head, "Check in through the implants, what a bloody Gaia-damned mess…"

Darksong frowned at him, then went pale as the night's news started feeding through her own implant connection. It would seem that the Four had been very busy indeed, as reports rolled in from all over the world of riots and looting, a mysterious plague that was animating corpses and infecting vampires, and a 'limited' nuclear exchange… The middle east would be glowing for a few centuries, and the reports coming out of the region were spotty at best but very, very bad.

Rettah frowned deeply as she checked herself. "Shit. Guess we'd better start booking travel plans…"

"Yeah, no shit," Keytar muttered, climbing out of his seat and going over to toss his cup in the sink. "Let's find these damned places, and fast."

He headed for the door, intent on moving, and would lead the way back up to the roof. Rettah shoved the last of her toast in her mouth and headed out on after him without delay. Not even time to get a proper breakfast or do any sightseeing or pick up postcards. Darksong shook her head sadly as she followed after, and caught the elevator with them when it arrived to take them up to the roof where Keytar shapeshifted into the Dragonfly.

"Hop aboard," he said, "And give a yell as to where we're goin' first, I'll snag some nav data from the web."

Rettah climbed aboard and said, "South America. Very specific. Oh well, no help for it, let's go." She'd bloody play the warmer/colder game to find it if she had to.

Keytar snorted, "That's real helpful, though I suppose the rainforest part narrows it down a little at least." He starts up the engines and 'oof's as he lifts off, "Someone's puttin' on some weight, and I ain't gonna guess who." he says teasingly, and Darksong rolls her eyes and smirks as they move off into the early twilight.

"Yeah, at least then we can only crawl all over _half_ the continent and at least we can rule out going mountain climbing in the Andes," Rettah said with a smirk. "I'm afraid my Spanish is a bit rusty, however, and I don't speak Portuguese."

Keytar kicked the engine to full thrust, reconfiguring the wings when they were clear of the city, and streaked south, southwest.

Darksong smiled faintly at Rettah, "No need of worry, I've kept current with the languages of those lands."

Rettah gave a nod and trusted Keytar a good deal more than Ylanwad to get them to the right general area. Damned if she was going to delay this any longer than she had to, even if she did end up half-starved in the process. It didn't take that long to get to the Gulf and turn southward at full burn, and it was when they reached the northern coast of the continent that Rettah felt first a hint of something in her mind, then an image of the locale formed as well as an exact location. It looked like an old stepped pyramid deep in the heart of the forest, hidden by centuries of vines and other encroaching foliage. Rettah looked and listened quietly and described what she saw. She'd guessed it was probably something like that.

Darksong listened to the description and made a face, "Toltec," she said, "There's bound to be many unpleasant spirits or wraiths lurking nearby, their rites were… not pleasant." She gazed pensively out into the night, hating how memory could bring things up at the most inconvenient times.

Keytar hmmed, "Okay, think I got it, be about another ten minutes at max, then have to find a place to land… or skydive. Heh."

"From what that fellow said, I would be surprised if these places _weren't_ heavily guarded death traps," Rettah replied dryly as they approached.

"Considering he took you on a visionwalk," Darksong said softly, "You likely wouldn't have even seen or recognized what defenders the one you visited contained. Such journeys are… problematical."

Keytar slowed as they neared the area and searched for a place to land, actually finding a spot that was _just_ big enough about a mile away from their destination. "Hmm, somethin' really weird on the ground," he muttered.

A bit of a hike, but workable. Rettah raised an eyebrow and peers down, scanning the ground to see what he meant.

"Don't bother lookin'," Keytar said, "I'm not catchin' signs of _anything_ alive down there, really damned suspicious for the middle of the rainforest." Whatever it was hadn't seemed to dissuade the trees at all…

"That's weird… Let's go down and take a look…" Rettah said, frowning. "Gonna be a bit of a hike over the place either way…"

Darksong looked darkly into the forest, eyes scanning fruitlessly for signs of anything that moved which wasn't stirred by the wind of their own passage… not even a single bird flew from the trees, squawking in protest. That was _not_ natural. They set down and Keytar waited for the two of them to debark before re-shifting and taking a thoughtful look around.

Rettah frowned a bit and said, "Yeah, something _definitely_ ain't right here…"

With all due caution, they moved off in the direction of the pyramid, spreading out just a little to get better coverage of the area, and all of them were on high alert as the uneasy stillness of the forest gnawed at them. That changed when they were about halfway there as a low groaning could be heard echoing through the trees… 


	6. Down in the Jungle

That couldn't be good, Rettah thought, peering about in some concern quietly, more than ready to fight if need be. It didn't take long to confirm her assumption as the first groan was echoed from another direction, or at least it seemed that way with the way it was bouncing around the trees, and a moment later from yet another. The forest was coming alive with sound, and the first sight of the creature that emerged from the darkness in all its rotting glory firmly cements it as it let loose another low groan and shambles toward them…

Definitely not good, she thought as she took on crinos form and let flames hug her body. At the moment, she wasn't particularly caring if she _did_ start a forest fire.

The first creature was soon joined by a horde of others, some more spry and less-rotten than others, others were little more than bone with tattered rags dangling from them. They all had one thing in common, and that was the murderous intent that they turn on the intruders… Unfortunately, their numbers and unheeding nature began to overwhelm the pack, despite their best efforts, though Darksong squirmed and darted free into the air.

"Damnit, there's too many of them," Rettah swore, surrounding them in flames and unleashing a firestorm on their assailants. "Can you get us into the air again?" she said aside to Keytar.

Darksong darted in to rake razor talons across the head of one, sending the rotten skull tumbling, which gave them _just_ enough leeway for Keytar to re-shift the metallic wings and dart over to grab Rettah without reply and leap into the air. One of the creatures almost grabbed his foot, but he jerked it free in time.

"That was too close," Rettah said, holding onto Keytar tightly. "We're either gonna need backup, or hope there's nothing that can fly on the way there and try to sneak in somehow or something."

Darksong was uncharacteristically silent as she flew alongside them.

Keytar replied, "We ain't seen anythin' flyin' _yet_ , so maybe they don't have anythin' that can and if what Whisper said was true then they can't enter the place themselves…"

"Let's hope so…" Rettah said, "Let's see about getting over there one way or another…"

They managed to get to the pyramid without any problems, though looking down from above went to show that it wasn't going to be as simple as that… The groan must have woken up the horde, because the area around the ancient pyramid is _packed_ with the undead shamblers.

"Geez, I don't suppose the thing has a back door or anything…" Rettah said, looking down. "I don't suppose anyone fancies playing Indiana Jones or something?"

"Whaddaya mean, babe?" Keytar asked. "I'm game if Darksong can keep ya aloft."

Darksong looked over and nodded silently before looking back down at the hordes below.

Rettah made note to rethink the metamorph thing at a later date and said, "How many of these damned things can there be?" She flicked out a hand and sent the magical equivalent of napalm down along some of the ones closest to the pyramid. "Though all things considered, I get this feeling getting in will be the _least_ of our worries."

"There could be thousands, _tens_ of thousands," Darksong replied quietly, barely heard above the low sea of groans from below.

The zombies didn't seem greatly-impressed by the flame, continuing to shamble and watch them hungrily… though it _did_ manage to start that forest fire Rettah didn't care about earlier. At the moment, she still didn't care, having larger problems on her mind at the moment. Besides, fire was a healthy part of a natural ecosystem, shambling undead monsters weren't.

"Damn, see if we can manage to get inside…" Rettah muttered.

"I'm open for suggestions," Keytar replied, looking down at the smoldering masses below and adding a little height to get out of the worst heat.

"Well, you're the metamorph here," Rettah said, peering down to see if she could tell just where the entrance was and wondering if she had anything in her bag of holding that might help, too.

Keytar smirked and darted over to the pyramid and set Rettah down on the flattened top, then leapt back. "Okay, fine, you head down while I create a distraction."

He arced over and dives toward the horde, shapeshifting to Crinos at the last moment to land and roll, then started ripping into things. The approach appeared to be working, drawing in all of them in the immediate area… Rettah was a bit concerned about him but didn't waste the opportunity to try to climb down and get inside. Keytar seemed to be holding his own well enough as they descend quickly and as quietly as possible down the steeply-sloped stepped sides. The entrance itself was clear when they get there, though Rettah knew that wasn't the _real_ entrance to the place…

Rettah figured they probably wouldn't be able to kill a metamorph unless they started slinging around magic or something, though she couldn't doubt it probably wasn't pleasant. She glanced up toward where she'd last seen Darksong and tried to see about getting inside.

Oh Darksong was right on her tail as she broke into the building proper, keeping an eye out for anything shambling or groaning out of the shadows and watching Rettah's back. That was all part of what a pack _did_.

It only took a few minutes for Rettah to locate the hidden entrance she _knew_ was there and steal inside the familiarly-constructed odd corridor. Rettah didn't relax much once she was inside, all the more wary for threats and dangers that were not quite as obvious as the creatures outside. She headed in quietly, watching and listening. The layout here was similar if not the same as the one that Rettah had seen before, as they quickly came to the first chamber with the fountain. Strangely enough, there was no sign of killer robots, automated defense turrets, or anything else. Rettah frowned a bit as she continued on, hoping that Keytar is okay as she pressed forward.

Continuing on, there was still no sign of Jones-esque booby traps or more high-tech ones, if anything the place seemed to almost exude an aura of peace and tranquility. They reached the final chamber soon enough, and the source of that aura became blindingly clear as they stepped in and it pressed in on them from all sides. These clearly were _not_ a violent species in any way, shape, or form… Rettah looked about the room quietly, the sense of tranquility getting to her a bit. She wavered a bit before going to try to see about retrieving the piece of the artifact that she was told was here. The carved sphere floated serenely at the center of the chamber, just as in the other place, and something could vaguely be seen inside it.

"Guess this is it," Rettah said softly, much as she might like to linger for a bit, there was no time to lose. She sighed quietly and went to see if she could get it out somehow.

It looked to be melded into the globe itself and there were no obvious cracks or crevices in the crystalline structure. The globe was about four feet in diameter.

She glanced aside to Darksong and said quietly, "So, how do you suppose we're gonna get this outta here, besides brute force?" She didn't feel particularly inclined to go trying to smash things in here willy-nilly unless it was absolutely necessary.

Darksong circled the sculpture slowly, examining it thoughtfully, and quietly replied, "It would seem they crafted it around what they meant to hide and protect, I think there is no other way." She shrugged faintly, though she didn't like the idea much herself.

Rettah sighed a bit, having been afraid of that. "Well, in that case… Sorry about this," she said, though not to Darksong, and proceeded to try smashing it open.

It took very little to smash the globe, the structure a fragile crystalline matrix that shattered with the first blow into infinitesimal tiny shards. An intricately-designed cube of the same material as the corridors continued to hover at the center and spin slowly… but the light of the crystal walls began to dim and fade, the aura gradually extinguishing with a long sigh. Rettah sighed regretfully as she reached out to take the remaining cube. She wasn't too sure she cared to think about what that might mean.

Darksong hugged herself, eyes closing as she felt what just happened and tried to fight back emotion. "At least they are free," she managed weakly.

Rettah sighed and looked to the floor for a moment and then pocketed the cube and headed for the way out again quietly. She wasn't sure what to say. They made their way out, the power of the entire place seeming to fade in their passing but holding on until that point at least. Rettah came out quietly, warily, peering out for signs of fighting and to see how Keytar was doing, listening carefully.

Thaaaat was a pretty simple question to answer, as they made their way out of the temple they find him backing toward them and clawing at the creatures that were pressing him back through sheer weight of numbers. Apparently, the defense system that kept the zombies out failed as well.

"Let's get the hell out of here!" Rettah called toward him, lobbing a few firebolts at them to try to distract them.

"Go!" Keytar called back, looking over his shoulder with relief, "Recall the hell outta here, be right with ya!"

Rettah just gave a nod and didn't argue, proceeding to see about doing so after one last volley of flames. Of all the things in the World of Darkness, these damned zombies seemed to be pretty much immune to flame… probably had something to do with being so, uhhh, juicy. There weren't any wards on the temple now, though, and Darksong followed Rettah in a Recall, and Keytar followed a minute later. He was looking a bit worse for wear, but was healing the nastiness the creatures' claws were capable of.

Rettah let out a sigh of relief once they were out of immediate danger and she looked over toward Keytar and said, "Are you okay?"

"Nothin' that won't heal," Keytar replied, shifting back to his homid form and mostly managing to erase signs of oozing silver. "You get what we went to that little slice of hell for?"

Rettah gave a nod and pulled out the cube she had retrieved from inside the sphere to get a better look at the thing.

"Good, let's get somethin' to eat before goin' on," Keytar replied and headed off down the road to the Crux.

The cube was the same odd material as the structure under the temple, including being warm to the touch, and a faint hum of power emanated from it. Intricate designs decorated its surface, though their meaning wasn't clear.

Rettah put it back and nodded, heading over that way and said, "I hate to say, but if that's any indication of what we might run into there, we may just want a little more backup…" She took a seat inside the Crux and ordered a plate of meat and potatoes and a good deal of alcohol.

Darksong ordered bloodwine for herself and settled in to sip at it in melancholy silence, though clearly paying attention.

Keytar ordered the biggest steak they carry and the trimmings to go with it. "I hear ya," he replied, "Though I dunno who to call offhand."

"And I'm afraid my fire was not so effective against those things as I might have hoped for," Rettah said dryly. "Whoever heard of corporeal undead that didn't burst into flames at the slightest spark?" She snorted.

Keytar snorted and dug in, replying between bites that he wolfed down, "Doesn't surprise me, they were probably warded or somethin', that's such a well-known and used remedy for all sorts of things back home."

Rettah ate quickly, barely remembering to breathe or she'd end up losing her appetite after the crap out there. "It'd probably be too much to hope for to hope that the others would be any easier."

Keytar shook his head, "They're probably all about the same, though, hmm, I wonder…" he munched thoughtfully for a moment, then went on, "All we saw was those freakin' zombies, I wonder if each of the Four picked one to guard? That'd mean somethin' _different_ at each one." He grimaced.

"It wouldn't surprise me," Rettah said. "Which means this is just going to be _fun_." She smirked, and downed some beer.

"Yeah." Keytar smirked. "So who do you figure that one was? Death? Pestilence maybe? That'd seem ta fit in with the disease goin' around and affectin' the leeches."

"That'd be my guess," Rettah said. "Wonder what we might run into at the other ones, then." She finished her food and drank some more alcohol to wash it down.

Keytar finished his, then orders another plate and went at it with a little more normal energy, the last of the marks vanishing at last. "Depends where we meet em, I'd guess," he replied, "If ya got a look at any a those things, they were wearin' scraps of native clothing, so they probably used whatever they have on hand for it." He shrugged. "Not so bad if we're damned careful."

"Yeah… hate to think about the poor people around there…" Rettah muttered. "But not much help for it but to make sure we get this done before it's too late…"

"Yeah, looks like they really kicked things off with a bang," Keytar replied, shaking his head as he checked in on the GW-specific boards and found all sorts of ugly details about things that were going down.

"They didn't really leave much time to do any sightseeing or pick up postcards," Rettah said with a smirk, getting some more alcohol inside of her.

"Yeah, some people are just rude that way." Keytar smirked. "Next thing ya know they'll be puttin' those drinks with the little umbrellas in em on the hitlist."

"Hmm, I think there's a few people around here who might care what's going on over there and might be able to help without being a pain in the ass…" Rettah mused.

"Who do ya have in mind?" Keytar asked cautiously, not really keen on the idea but willing to at least think about it.

"Hmm, wasn't that Trigger fellow around here somewhere?" Rettah said thoughtfully.

"Hmm, yeah, he was, little place set up on Soul's Road," Keytar replied. "And he'd probably be more than interested in what's going on back home, if he hasn't gone back to check it out already. Another point to that would be maybe gettin' some of his brood called out."

"Can check down there once you're done eating, perhaps," Rettah said. "May be worth a look."

"Gimme half a shake." Keytar grinned and dug in with renewed fervor, obviously packing the food away into a spare leg someplace.

Darksong smirked quietly and shook her head, drained the remainder of her wine thoughtfully.

Rettah snickered softly and drained her beer, standing up and stretching a bit when he was finished and heading off down Soul's Road to the place. They ran across a couple of vampires on the way there who drifted effortlessly through the traffic and got there just ahead of them, and the two of them were talking in low tones with Falk when the party arrived. He looked over at them, nods briefly, and returned to the quiet convo. Rettah came in and glanced over to them and waited patiently, although not particularly above trying to eavesdrop quietly, well, it _was_ kind of important.

Rettah could easily follow the line of conversation, it wasn't like they were trying to hide anything in particular. Seems that Falk was planning on being away for a little while, at least, and he was leaving three of his brood here to keep an eye on things. The arrangements were pretty quick and simple, they were familiar with each other and how they work, and he walked briskly over when they're done.

"What can I do for you?" Falk asked.

"I'll presume you've heard about recent events in the World of Darkness?" Rettah said, looking over to him.

"No shit," Falk replied bluntly, "Headed that way right now to see what needs to be done and I'm a little busy, so, again, what can I do for you?"

"Well, that's why we're here," Rettah said. "We know what needs to be done, we need to retrieve four pieces of some ancient artifact from heavily guarded locations, and we already got the first one and about went through hell to get the thing…"

Falk just looked at her for a second, then smirked. "You better not be pulling my fucking leg on this. Okay, I can spare a few minutes to listen to it and see what's going on."

Rettah took a deep breath and proceeded to describe the dream she had had the night before to him again, and concluded with, "… and we went to South America and fought past a bunch of slimy zombies and managed to retrieve this." She pulled out the strange cube from her pocket to show him.

"Mmkay then," Falk commented after she was done, then took a look at the cube. "What the fuck? That's one hell of a goddamned soultrap…" He looked at her thoughtfully. "Hmm, so maybe this isn't a wild fucking goose chase, which leads me back to what you need from me, not that I can't guess." He smirked.

"I don't imagine the other three are gonna be any easier," Rettah said. "And I'm not too arrogant to say I think we might just need another hand if we intend to get these things in one piece."

Falk had worked with the Garou before, so the idea of taking a spirit's word as truth wasn't quite so alien to him as it might be to other people. "Okay," he replied, "I've got ten of my brood that can help out, not including myself, day or night." He smirked, having been quite, quite busy in some ways and would get around to the others as time permitted. "I think that should do the trick, with a little hardware."

Rettah just quirked an eyebrow at the 'day or night' bit, but just gave a nod and said, "Yeaah… and needless to say, time is of the essence, before these fuckers screw around anymore… the next three are supposed to be in Australia, India, and Africa…"

"Right, already got the brood on the move," Falk replied. "So it shouldn't be any trouble to get them moving in the right direction." Especially with the Nexus, but that was beside the point. "Let's roll," he said without further hesitation and strides for the door and down toward the Nexus.

Certainly didn't mess around, Rettah thought, heading out along with him and certainly feeling a good deal more comfortable with the backup. Not that she had anything in particular against vampires, and he'd already well enough shown himself to be effective in dealing with nasties. The blonde female who'd been working the desk moved out with them, and introduced herself as Ruth on the way to the Nexus. She was obviously at least a _little_ more polite and courteous than her Sire. They arrived and Falk input a different set of coordinates, waited for everyone to be ready, and transferred them over. Sun was just coming up as they arrived on what looked like an airfield landing strip… Rettah and crew might be a little surprised to see several familiar light aircraft, the same basic design as the Dragonfly but these suckers were armed.

"Home sweet home away from home," Falk remarked and strode toward a nearby building.

Ruth grinned at the crew. "Used to be Colorado Air Force Base."

"Nice," Rettah said lightly as she took a brief glance around, heading off after him. She glanced off toward the sun and back at the vampires and wondered just what they'd come across to get around that little weakness.

Ruth catches Rettah's look and chuckles lightly as she led them into a hangar, the entry an airlock-like affair to block the sun and she stopped inside the outer door to let the thing cycle. "That's the one thing I missed about being Kindred," she remarked, "Sunrises and sets."

"How'd you manage that little trick, anyway, if you don't mind me asking?" Rettah wondered.

They moved past the airlock and into the hangar, which was furnished with all the things anyone could wish for in a hideout… comfort, recreation… weapons, ammo, and other implements of destruction. There were around twenty or so vampires already present and making themselves comfortable while they waited, though various activities ceased as their Sire walked in.

"I didn't," Ruth replied, " _He_ did…" A flicker of more than admiration colored her eyes for a moment before it was locked away, and she continued, "There's a ritual that closes some of the loopholes that go along with being a vampire, only ten of us have had it done so far, and that was in one mass rite."

"Interesting," Rettah said, figuring that the Elkandu must have had access to something like that as she knew Keolah was a vampire and yet wasn't affected by sunlight either.

"Alright people, listen up," Falk called out, having passed a few idle hellos in the meantime. "The lady here has some work for us, at least those who've gotten over the whole sunlight allergy thing, so pay close fucking attention to what she has to say."

All eyes turned immediately to Rettah with varying levels of curious attentiveness.

Rettah said, "Some bad crap's already happening here, well, worse is gonna happen if it's not stopped. We need to find four pieces of an ancient artifact, and we've already found one, and they're _heavily_ guarded. We've only got vague information on where they might be, but I can sense where they are when I get close enough…"

"Short, sweet, to the point, I like it," Falk said, getting a couple chuckles from his brood. "Okay folks, here's the plan: all of the upgrades are coming with us to run interference, five more are gonna be flying the Dragonflies for air support. Sun rises, you pilots know the deal, polarize and fly by instrument, spotters can call in fire from the ground as needed."

Not even a ripple of question from them, clearly familiar territory. Rettah gave an appreciative nod at their organization, kind of wishing they'd had them along on the _last_ little trip of hell. Falk walked over to the group as the vampires went to work, the sunlight-challenged dealing with duties in the hangar until the small craft were cycled through the larger airlock one by one, then going to check on their intended craft.

"Alright, so you don't know where the fuck you're going," Falk said, "But I've seen some of the Garou's tracking methods so I'm good with that. Should be ready to go in a half hour."

Rettah gave a nod and said, "Okay, great." She glanced over toward her companions with a flicker of a grin.

Falk wandered off to check on things while they waited, Ruth in tow.

Keytar just smirked a bit. "Okay, so that was a _good_ idea, babe, always pays ta have your own personal strikeforce. Sheesh."

Rettah grinned and said, "No kidding. I'm feeling better about this deal already. Shall we see if we can't scrounge up a cup of joe while we wait?"

"Right, I'm sure a buncha leeches are gonna have coffee layin' around," Keytar smirked, but went to look. Oddly enough, they _did_ find a pot that's been recently turned off and was still reasonably hot. "Well I'll be damned. Someone's obviously an addict."

Rettah chuckled softly and helped herself to a cup. "Damn, I knew I was forgetting something. My bag's full of food and miscellaneous crap… but there's no drinks! Gonna need to remedy that one of these days."

Keytar helped himself to a cup but Darksong passed this time, looking around the place with interest. "So does it keep em cool or hot too, as well as food fresh?" he asked.

It didn't take long to get the five small craft shuttled in and pre-flight checks going while the strike team assembled various gear. They'd obviously been hitting Torn Elkandu, since Rettah saw one of them putting a long firearm of some sort into his pocket.

"Yup," Rettah said. "They make cupboards and iceboxes and such with that effect too that may or may not also have the infinite storage enchantment on them."

"You just _had_ to tell him that, didn't you?" Darksong smirked, managing to dredge up a bit of her usual caustic humor, "Now he'll be impossible to keep away from the espresso. Do you have _any_ idea what that's like?"

Keytar grinned innocently. "I have no idea what you mean."

Rettah giggled softly. "Oh, that's nothing. I remember one of Tempest's prize possessions was a bottle of endless beer…"

"Really?" Keytar asked with entirely too much bright enthusiasm.

Darksong laughed lightly, "Oh now you've _really_ gone and done it, never going to hear the end of that one."

He just smirked. "Hey, what's wrong with a good beer?"

To which Darksong just replied, "There's no such thing."

"Actually, all it produced was an endless stream of mediocre beer," Rettah said. "But the thing's been missing for decades. Nobody knows where it went off to."

"Blech, well hell with that then," Keytar said, "That's just one of those things in life that's gotta be good or it's just not worth it. That'd be like a lifetime supply of tofu."

Rettah snickered softly. "Put in a request to Calring for a decanter of endless coffee," she suggested lightly.

Keytar looked over at Darksong. "Speakin' of, you ever seen anyone fill the Boss' pot?"

Darksong thought about it a second, then shook her head.

He smirked. "Now that would be the kinda thing I could see a GW buggin' Gadget for, just a little spin on the old 'Hong Kong theatre bullets' thing."

Rettah snickered again. "Could be, could be," she said, smirking. "A replicator could do it well enough too…"

"Maybe it's just a prop," Keytar mused, "That'd be about up to speed with all the Ragabash runnin' around too." He chuckled.

"Then the Elkandu teach this useful low-level Fire spell called 'Make My Coffee Hot Again'," Rettah said. "Right up there with the Seeking spell 'Where The Hell Am I?'"

"At least they're useful," Keytar snickered. "Unlike this one leech ability I heard of where they always know what time it is. Ooooh, scary!"

"Well, I suppose it's useful if your watch breaks or something…" Rettah said. "And you're in one of those stupid buildings that has no clocks because they don't want you to know how much time you've wasted in there…"

"That's when ya call information ta keep track," Keytar chuckled and refilled his cup.

Darksong yawned delicately and found herself a place to sit down while waiting, might as well be comfortable until they were ready to fly back into hell.

"Or you get an internal chronometer installed into your brain…" Rettah replied with a grin, taking a seat herself.

"Well yeah, there's that too, but how many people are crazy enough to get their brains chopped into?" Keytar grinned and topped his cup off, then went to have a seat. "GWs and the occasional nutball from outside the tribe, that's about it."

"Heh, dunno why people are so leery about it, really, it's not like it hurts and it's so _fun_!" Rettah said brightly.

Darksong chuckled softly, "Even I had to begrudgingly admit that, after seeing what the Glass Walker implants were capable of. Not, mind you, that I've gone to quite the lengths that some have."

"Yeeah," Rettah said, stretching a bit. "I'm not sure if I'm _quite_ ready to go quite so far as some I've seen yet…"

"Oh the implants aren't so bad," Darksong replied. "It's when you start looking at voluntarily removing limbs that you really have to wonder if there isn't a line that shouldn't be crossed."

"Yeah, exactly," Rettah said, smirking. "I rather _like_ my body, after all…" She shrugged.

"So do I, so do I," Keytar replied with a nod, then looked surprised, "Oh, you meant in general, silly me." He winked at her and grinned, may as well keep on a lighter note while they could.

Darksong innocently refrained from commenting.

Rettah chuckled. "It'd be a waste of good equipment after all, eh? Heh, guess you had to wonder a little then at my excitement when I found out about the implants here though huh?" She grinned at Keytar.

"Nahhhh, not really," Keytar waved it off, "If you'd gone total chromefreak like the Boss, _then_ I'd have to wonder. I don't know a single GW that doesn't have the neuralware installed, it's the simplest and overall most flexible and useful implant out there. We won't go into some of the more, um, interesting ones."

Rettah chuckled softly. "Well, yeah, it's quite the handy thing, certainly. Course, it was also funny seeing Ylanwad freak out…"

Keytar snorted. "She freaked out over vampire teddy bears, what do you expect?"

"Point," Rettah said, smirking. "She's uhhh, a bit of an interesting one, yes. But prime example what the people over there tend to do… they pick some random level of technology they're comfortable with, and proceed to freak out at anything above that. Better than some at least, I've seen some that would freak out over a car or a phone…"

"Sounds like most animal breeds." Darksong smiled faintly. "Though at least some of those are more apt to go totally crazed over technology than to hide from it like a thunderstorm."

"And they all thought _I_ was the weird one," Rettah said. "Tch. Sitting around in caves with no indoor plumbing or electricity. Talk about taking a running leap backwards instead of forwards."

"Bah, they can all just take a runnin' leap, you're family now." Keytar grinned. "Don't suppose anyone mentioned the 'Feet First' retirement plan, did they?"

"Retirement?" Rettah said, raising an eyebrow.

Darksong smirked over at him, then rolled her eyes and looked back at Rettah. "Don't pay any attention to him, he's the wisest of donkey's brood."

Keytar grinned. "Hey, I resemble that remark!"

Rettah snickered softly and said, "Retirement is for dorks. Though I'm sure there's a joke in here somewhere, so out with it already."

Darksong smiled and sighed, shaking her head faintly, "It's a very _old_ joke, but…" She shrugged. "It comes down to the only way you can retire from a job is when they carry you feet first out of it, ie when you die."

Rettah snickered some more. "Sounds about right. I don't know why anyone would _want_ to, personally…"

"He's enough to make one think about it," Darksong indicated Keytar with a roll of her eyes, grinning crookedly.

"Aw c'mon, ya know ya love me or you'd hit me a lot more often." Keytar grinned.

Rettah smirks. "Nahhh," she says. "Never. Not in a million years. Well, then again, if I'm still alive in a million years, …"

"You'll probably be as batty as she is," Keytar quipped, then laughs and ducked as Darksong lobbed a convenient projectile at him.

"Having fun, kiddies?" Falk asked, walking up to them, "Well get your asses in gear, it's time to let the party fucking roll."


	7. Dreamtime

Rettah put away her cup and gave a nod and climbed to her feet. "Let's go, then."

The broodmembers who were going along as pilots had dressed in full body suits, including helmets, since they were the only ones who weren't sunlight resistant as yet. Those who weren't joining on the mission filtered into other parts of the building to deal with other things while the team loaded up and opened the hangar to the early morning light. They moved with practiced efficiency and were ready in a few minutes more.

Falk pointed over to one of the small planes. "Hop in, we'll be flying point and you get to play bird-dog."

Rettah gave a nod and climbed into the indicated plane, certainly appreciating their efficiency. "Right then."

Keytar and Darksong climbed in after her, filling out the seats of the plane, and settled in for the flight. The pilot waited his line in the queue and took off a few minutes later to join the other fleet craft as they circled.

Falk looked over at Rettah, "Alright, the show's yours, where to first?"

"Australia," Rettah said, randomly picking the closest one at the moment she thought. "I know where that one is at least.. Ayers Rock. No idea what might be guarding it though."

"Ayers Rock?" Falk looked at her a moment, smirked. "Well that ought to be just a bundle of fucking fun, that place has some major history to it from the Bunyip to the BSDs." He glanced at the pilot. "You heard the lady, set the course and coordinate."

The pilot's helmeted head nodded as he punched in a series of queries and data on a pad in the control panel, and the wing of fighters veered off in formation to follow the leader. Rettah settled in for the flight, anticipating nothing good from whatever they might encountered outside of it.

"Ayers Rock…" Darksong mused thoughtfully as the plane streaked to the southwest, "Now that it's mentioned, I remember hearing something of the history from the Bunyip. Their breed was slaughtered by the Garou during the War of Tears, the atrocity instigated by a hidden Hive of the Black Spiral's bastards. It was a place of great misery and unwelcome to any Garou who went there for many years… At least until they were returned to this world," she looked at Rettah, "by the very being who sent you upon this quest. He and his companions freed the Rainbow Serpent and its blood changed the Spiral there to their pure kin or Bunyip, signalling a rebirth of both."

"Mh," Rettah said thoughtfully. "So what do you supposed we'll run into there? Least one can hope pretty certainly that 'slimy undead monsters' won't be it, at least…"

"If there are still restless spirits of the Bunyip there who have not forgiven the Garou…" Darksong replied quietly, "I would not think they'd ally themselves with the forces at work in this world, but neither would they be friendly to you or Keytar."

Keytar was only half-listening, his expression grim as he checked in on the news again and it had only gotten worse. Natural phenomenon were acting up now, including a sudden awakening of the volcanoes on the Hawaiian islands that didn't seem inclined to still. Geologists were baffled and the public was panicked, thousands were dead and all signs appear to lead to the islands being utterly destroyed by the end of it.

Rettah looked over toward him and said, "What's up? More bad news I take it?"

"Heh, Hawaii's going ballistic," Keytar replied quietly, "And the riots are getting worse, there was a massacre in China when the military got called out to deal with it…" He shook his head grim., "Freaky storms, volcanoes erupting, people goin' out of control. Real Apocalypse-grade stuff here…"

"Great, no pressure here," Rettah muttered quietly, sighing a bit. "Craziness."

"That ain't the worst of it," Falk suddenly spoke up, listening to something, "We got a _major_ weather front boiling out in the Pacific and we're going to have to circle around it. Shit," he muttered and shook his head, "Something's going at it hard and heavy in there…"

The plane veered to begin changing course to avoid the unnatural storm.

"Ugh…" Rettah said, peering out at the weather. "It's like they say… it never rains, it pours." She held onto her seat compulsively. "And to think that this crap is only going to get worse…"

The planes skirted the edge of the storm, and Rettah could swore that she saw titanic figures outlined by the massive play of lightning through the roiling clouds. From the way that Falk was watching it intently, she probably saw.

Rettah frowned deeply and peered over in that direction and said, "What is it?"

Darksong looked over and her eyes widened. "The Dragon Kings," she whispered, then frowned faintly, "But what are they fighting?"

Falk chuckled grimly, "Each other. Seems these bastards aren't fucking around, guess they decided it was time to screw with the spirit world too."

"Bloody hell," Rettah muttered. She remembered the vision of the possible future that she had seen, and wondered, given what shit's been going on lately, that it wasn't just a metaphor.

"That's sure as fuck where it's headed," Falk agreed, "Let's just hope they don't decide to let some of their prisoners out to play." He shook his head and turned his attention deliberately away from the storm, vision instead turning to look at what the hell else was going on in the world… and his expression just got stonier.

"ETA twenty minutes," said the pilot.

Twenty minutes couldn't pass fast enough as far as Rettah was concerned at the moment. She wasn't too sure she wanted to see just what all was going on, but she did anyway, not that she really needed the reminder of just why she was doing this. The newsnet was having a field day with what's going on, between the plague that had broken out and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, the reports of the utter devastation in the wake of the nuclear exchange in the middle east, and violence all over, there weren't enough hours in the day for them to report on it all. Of particular interest to Rettah and crew was the sudden rise in 'Human First' groups… They'd begun back after the Awakening, but they really seemed to be gaining some steam after recent events, and a particular face kept popping up all over the damned place where they're concerned. He was a very smooth political player, and had had quite a bit of airtime just in the past couple days, not _quite_ going to far as to outright say that the shapeshifters and their allies were responsible, but he might as well. Some of the public were eating it up, too, and there had been a rash of attacks at caerns and public places known to be shapeshifter owned.

Rettah sighed and shook her head slowly. What a fucking mess… She did a search to see if she can find out who this guy might be who was stirring up this crap. The man's name was Arkadi Stark, and Rettah could readily find a full trail of who and what he is… Born in the midwest United States, above-average student, went to Yale, yada yada, but as she was scrolling through there were several inconsistencies that the GW network pointed out as suggesting the whole of it was fabricated. She'd have been surprised if it weren't, and as they had a little bit before getting to Australia she did a bit more digging to see what she could find.

With the tie-in to the GW net, she found a whole lot of nothing… that is to say that the background is totally bogus, and he hadn't been verifiably seen before the past couple days when he started making appearances in the political circles. Surprise, surprise. So who was he really, she wondered. As if she couldn't guess. She mumbled quietly as she looked off to where they were and how much further it was.

"LZ ahead," the pilot said, "Are we going in hot, or land and sneak?"

Falk looked over at Rettah with a smirk. "What's it going to be? We hit this place fast and hard, or land a ways out and scout it out first? There's advantages to both approaches."

"I'd generally prefer the latter, but under the circumstances, I'd rather not mess around too much…" Rettah said, frowning. 

Falk nodded. "It's looking like we don't have a hell of a lot of time." He glanced at the pilot. "Hot landing, drop and circle for support."

The pilot nodded and relayed the op orders to the others in the flight, and the little craft streaked down in precise order to hover near the ground in an area they scanned as clear. Falk hopped out as soon as they were within distance, and the broodmembers from the other planes debarked equally quickly. Rettah climbed out after him, alert for anything that might decide to immediately try to attack them as they did so and glancing briefly aside to Keytar and Darksong as she did. Keytar and Darksong got out, equally alert and wary of the world around them, though the scrub and scraggly trees didn't seem like they could hide much. The towering mass of Ayers Rock loomed over them, its shade nearly reaching the landing zone. With a rising whine, the planes all took off again and streaked into the air to circle and wait for a call, the brood clearly taking this seriously.

The vampires scanned their surroundings, ready to turn the various array of lethal hardware on anything that twitched or looked at them wrong. Falk looked them over only briefly, then turned to Rettah, "Let's do it." and proceeded in the direction of the rock.

Rettah takes a deep breath and heads off in that direction as well. She peered about the vicinity on high alert, knowing perfectly well that just because there didn't appear to be much around at the moment, that that could change quickly enough.

"Hostiles incoming," Falk called out, gesturing toward the direction of a brief flicker of sunlight off metal in the sky.

Several fighters came screaming in, and the Dragonflies went to meet them, but that was just the sideshow as a horde of… _things_ came bubbling out from around the rock and rushed toward them in a gibbering, slavering mass. The vampired respond calmly and just opened fire, including one of them with a minigun. Eesh. Rettah had to wonder just what the hell they were going up against this time. She let out a stream of flame from her fingertips toward the things attacking them as she continued to press on forward. The things looked vaguely canine, though they were grotesquely mutated in similar fashion, with furless bright red skins, massive jaws, and a frill akin to some lizards at their necks. They slobbered and howled as fire and firepower ripped into them, but they kept coming.

Black light flashed suddenly, a half-sphere appearing and then vanishing again… leaving crater in the landscape and no sign of the hounds in its area of effect. Between the group and Falk's ruthless use of the Void, the remnants of the beasts were brought to a confused and uncertain halt some hundred feet from their intended quarry, then turned tail and fled. Rettah glanced at Falk with a touch of surprise for a moment before continuing on, wasting no time to take advantage of their enemies' retreat.

There was quite a mess to pass through, there had been hundreds of the things at the least, but the creatures showed no sign of returning any time soon… and a couple explosions in the air showed the end of the fighters that had come to intercept them. Falk looked up at the sound, then nodded in satisfaction as he took stock of the full flight remaining and continued onward.

"What the hell were those things…" Rettah muttered rhetorically as she scrambled on past the mess and up toward the rock.

"Somethin' somebody cooked up," Keytar replied, pointing to a bit of metallic skeleton poking out of one of the corpses, "That sure as hell isn't natural."

Falk glanced over dispassionately and moved on, homing in on the faint signature that was similar to the cube Rettah already had.

"No bloody kidding," Rettah replied with a half-glance to the rejected from the genetics lab.

They reached the base of the rock and Falk studied it thoughtfully, walking slowly along it to search for any signs of an entrance. There wasn't one to be seen, and unlike the temple there wasn't any helpful memory imparted as to a secret means of entrance in Rettah's mind.

Rettah scanned along it to see if she might pick up anything the naked eye might miss. "Hmm, now, where is it…" she murmured thoughtfully. "He said it was half in the Ethereal Plane or something… what did he say… Dreamtime?"

"Ah-hah, that'd be what's fucked up about what I'm seeing." Falk nodded once. "It's like the place is buried inside the rock, which means…" He turned sharply and issued some crisp orders to his brood to stay where they were and to keep alert, then looked to Rettah and the pack. "We'll get there from the Umbra then."

Rettah gave a nod and said, "Right then." She glanced aside to Keytar.

Keytar just looked on with a quirked grin as the vampire vanished in a shimmer of light, then looked at Rettah, "Decisive bastard, isn't he?"

Keytar chuckled and transformed a part of his hand to a reflective surface, studied it, and transferred over. Darksong followed after, and when Rettah arrived she found the Umbra to be a mass of swirling, unstable colors, their range of sight no more than ten feet in any direction. Strange things seemed to lurk in the thick colored mist, but turning to look at any one thing only made it retreat even as another arose at the corner of one's eyes.

Rettah glanced about with vague interest for a moment quietly. "Funky place," she commented softly.

She tried to sense the direction of the place they needed to go and head off in that general direction if she could. It wasn't difficult to track the direction, it led them straight into the semi-solid substance of Ayers Rock's ethereal counterpart. The air grew thick and difficult to breathe, and it was almost like moving through jell-o. Rettah slogged through quietly but purposefully. Fricking weird place, she thought, but at least it wasn't Pandemonium. As they neared the source of the beckoning Rettah sensed, shadowy forms moved suddenly out of the mists to surround them, spectral representations of men and Crinos-like forms… except the head and jaws were all wrong, too elongated and looking like the mouth could gape wide enough to swallow things whole.

"The Bunyip…" Darksong murmured quietly, carefully, for there was a sense of hostility and unwelcome emanating from them.

Rettah looked quietly at the forms as they appeared, frowning a bit. That could not be a good thing, she thought as she tried to head on further with something of a sigh. The spectres moved to interpose themselves between her and moving onward, remaining silently hostile as they brandished ephemeral weapons to dissuade anyone from going further…

"I'm sorry, but I must continue," Rettah said, not much dissuaded. She hadn't expected this to come down without a fight.

"Brothers of Wolf are not welcome in this holiest of places," the frontmost of them whispered, barely heard, "Would you seek to despoil this land further than you already have? Go!"

"If I do not, this land will be utterly destroyed, along with the rest of the world," Rettah replied firmly.

"Lies!" the angry ghost replied in a heated whisper, one that echoed from the others around them.

Falk narrowed his eyes and let out a slow, exasperated sigh, "We don't have time for this shit."

The feeling of pressure grew almost unbearable around them for the span of slow, agonizing heartbeats, and then suddenly the tension snapped and the spectral host vanished with an increasingly-distant wail. "Let's go," he said, and stalked on.

Rettah continued on with him and said, "What did you do?"

"Eh." Falk shrugged faintly. "Ghosts have a tether to the spirit world that links them to a specific spot, I just cut the lines."

Rettah didn't imagine they're going to be happy about that, but then at the moment she had more pressing matters on her mind and figures saving the world was worth pissing off some people. They found a more-substantial structure then, a doorway standing unsupported and seeming to lead nowhere, but its interior dark… Rettah looked to the doorway and peered inside at nothing.

"I didn't sign on to be fucking Alice," Falk muttered and stalked through the doorway, the idea not an unfamiliar one as he suspected it would lead them back to the physical realm.

Rettah followed after him curiously, smirking faintly at his mutterings and hoping they didn't run into anymore surprises in here. There weren't any surprises to be found, as the door did indeed deposit them into the physical realm in a room with a fountain at its center the same as in the others. It didn't take much guesswork to find the path, and Rettah led them unerringly to the crystal chamber where the globe awaited and the peaceful aura enfolded them in gentle welcome. Rettah sighed a bit as she glanced about, knowing what must come next as she headed over toward the globe. She gave a quiet apology to those here and went to retrieve the second piece of the artifact.

"Waitasec!" Falk called out, "You're just gonna smash the fucking thing? You have any idea what could happen when you fuck around with shit like that?"

Rettah paused and looked back at him with a smirk and said, "Yeah, I imagine the same thing that happened back at the other place. If you've any better ideas do let me know."

Falk muttered as he took a look at the thing, then brought up an illusion to show an image of just what he was seeing… just as the crystal was shaped to resemble rays of the sun, there were shimmering bands of power that radiated out from it in all directions, feeding the shimmering presences of the souls bound into the walls.

"Destroy it, and this all goes with it," Falk said, "Maybe not in a big fucking boom, but still not good. Maybe…" he continues thoughtfully, circling to get a look at the thing from another angle.

Rettah sighed softly, giving a helpless shrug and waited impatiently for him to give any better suggestions.

"Don't get me wrong." Falk smirked, glancing at Rettah, "I'm a big fan of the idea of the bigger hammer, but sometimes…" He shook his head and reached out and _into_ the globe, the crystal shimmering and rippling around his arm as he plucked the cube from its center and drew it slowly out. "Ta-daa," he muttered, and offered the cube to Rettah.

"Just like that?" Rettah said, sighing a bit and shaking her head as she took it and pocketed it. She turned to head out again, a bit clearly impressed that he seemed to be displaying abilities only the upper tier of the High Elkandu generally performed.

"No 'just like that' about it," Falk snorted as he turned to follow her back out, Keytar and Darksong trailing along and giving each other an amused look. "That entire thing's a soul construct, part generator, part container, and some other weird shit mixed in. Break the balance of the matrix and it _might_ just blast the fuck out of any soul within range."

"That's a cheerful thought," Rettah said dryly. No help for it, though, and they still had two more of the things to find. "Your Seeking is a good deal better than mine, clearly."

"I've had a few thousand years of practice." Falk grinned.

Keytar blinked at that. "Waaaait a minute, but you're from the twentieth century!"

Falk just smirked.

"Somebody's been playing around with time fields," Rettah commented with a smirk.

"Just a little," Falk remarked blandly, then chuckled lightly, "I found some very fucking interesting material when I was in Torn Elkandu."

They made their way back outside without incident, taking the Umbral doorway and crossing back over when they were beyond the confines of the rock itself. No sign was seen of the former guardians.

"Let's get moving on to India next then," Rettah said, not stopping to take any photographs with Keytar wearing silly hats or anything.


	8. Temple of Doom

It didn't take long to return to the broodmembers left on the ground or to call their transport in and get back aboard. They were airborne again in just a few minutes, and Falk swore virulently as he checked in ahead of them… "Small problem," he said grimly, "Seems the Dragon Kings have kicked things up a few notches and it looks like there's a tsunami heading for India, a really fucking _huge_ one. They're predicting the bastard's gonna make it at least a hundred miles inland…"

"People never seem to hide ancient artifacts in _convenient_ locations…" Rettah said, sighing.

"We can get to the area ahead of it," Falk said, "But it's gonna be fucking tight, we'll have _maybe_ a half hour before we gotta shag ass or end up sucking seawater. Your call."

"Better be quick then," Rettah said. "Because I don't think I'm carrying any scuba gear in my pocket. So where the hell did you find a time field potent enough for compressing thousands of years into however long?"

"Don't ask, don't tell." Falk smirked. "Though if it comes down to it I think I can loan us a little time without a problem once we get to wherever the fuck we're going this time."

The pilot punched in the course to go around the horrific storm again, and said as they streaked out, "ETA sixty minutes."

Rettah smirked faintly and said, "Most Elkandu would start randomly guessing whatever Chronomancers they can think of, as it's not like there's that many of them with that power level, but considering some of the things you've said, my guess would be you've been talking to Suzcecoz."

"Talking to? Nah, just reading a few notes," Falk chuckled lightly, "And studying an interesting little weave or two that she's set up, then customizing the ideas with some of my own."

"I used to hang out in Castle Shieltas a good deal, back when it was the headquarters for Tempest," Rettah said. "I know quite well what she was capable of, even before she became the Elkandu equivalent of the Weaver."

"So _that's_ what was going on out there," Falk replied, stretching a bit in his seat. "Noticed some unusual activity in some of the distant areas, but there's some places…" He shook his head. "Some impressive fucking wards on some sub-realms."

Rettah gave a nod and said, "Yeah, seems like at some point, something had somehow managed to _kill_ the Weaver, damned if I know how, then Shazmar went and decided to give Suzy the keys… literally, sort of…"

"Nice promotion," Falk commented, "Fucked if I'd want it, though, that kinda gig's got to be a _major_ pain in the ass." He shrugged. "From all that I've read and seen, have to say it was probably a good choice."

"Indeed. She's quite the genius in magic and technology…" Rettah said. "Great habit of pulling out of her ass what other people might consider impossible…"

Falk chuckled lightly, taking advantage of the opportunity to relax a little between missions, a very practical sort. "Whatever works, a damned useful way of going about things," he said, "And if it _doesn't_ work, then you find a way to make it."

"She could've been the leader of Tempest," Rettah went on, "She was the highest ranking member that they could find after Shazmar restored the universe for the most part… Well, aside from Harmony, and nobody was going to trust Harmony to run an daycare, never mind a faction…"

"Eh, I've heard about Harmony and what happened with her," Falk replied with a shrug, "I can't really say much against the idea that she came up with, or even comment on the reasons, it was just really fucking stupid to let things get out of hand like they apparently did."

"No kidding," Rettah said. "A quart of well-meaning, and a whole fricking vat full of lack of forethought and reasonable caution. Seems like somebody's always ending up destroying the universe, whether they intend to or not."

"You'll pardon my saying so," Falk smirked, not really caring either way, "But the Elkandu are pretty fucked up overall. All this shit about taking over or blowing the goddamned universe is ridiculous, with a little thinking ahead there's no excuse for that crap."

"Nooo kidding," Rettah agreed. "Admittedly this last time it wasn't the Elkandu themselves but some crazy fucked up death gods from another universe. And they had to use time travel to fix it somehow. Fricking _time travel_ …"

"Don't look at me, I have zero fucking interest in travelling through time," Falk snorted, "Why the hell bother when all you're gonna do is create another universe splitting off? No, I think I'll stick with the more… _practical_ aspects of that particular Talent."

"From what I heard afterward, they somehow managed to actually change the past instead of just making a new timeline," Rettah said. "No bloody idea how and don't really care either. Mika was involved… And it did get fixed, so that's good enough for me."

"That would take a _hell_ of a lot of power and careful thinking," Falk replied, "Surprises the fuck out of me that there was an Elkandu that was capable of the latter." He smirked. It wasn't that he hated them, just that he didn't have much respect or use for that sort of thing.

"Mika's probably the best Chronomancer of them, all the more so for that he generally keeps a low profile. But something to be said about the fact that he's the leader of Conclave and they're the one faction to have survived to today."

"Conclave, the faction that keeps to itself, minds its own business, and doesn't fuck with anyone else." Falk smirked. "That's about the best that I've heard of the bunch."

"There's a splinter group of them that dress up like pirates and talk in bad fake accents and fly around in airships and steal books, but I don't think anyone takes them seriously, even themselves."

"There's fucking goofballs anywhere you look," Falk snorted lightly, "But as long as they're not bothering anyone else, there's no reason to hunt em down. No use for em either, but they can be left to do their own thing."

Rettah gave a nod. "Darkhammer and Whitefire were just fucked up. Tempest, well, meant well for the most part. Then again, I'm probably a bit biased, I'll admit." She smirked.

"Now they're just a bunch of random assholes running around doing whatever sounds good at the time and making a mess out of things now and then." Falk smirked and shook his head, "Oh well, that's what people do, I guess, though it's a fucking pain in the ass."

"Uh-huh," Rettah said. "At least the damned demons have been staying in the Abyss lately, and the ones who do come out don't go fucking around for the most part…"

Falk snorted, "There's demons all over the damned place, I'd swear someone was busy with a batch of demonweed or something in Torn Elkandu. You're right that they don't seem to do much of anything, though, and what more could you expect from the Elkandu?"

"Angels and demons were really popular back some years ago," Rettah said. "Seemed like everyone and their mother wanted to be one. Somebody even fucking soulbound me and turned _me_ into a demon during that point too… and then I later randomly became, well, not a demon, obviously. During the Temporal Convergence, bunch of random crap like that was going on."

"Oh _that_ had to be fun," Falk said, "All the rituals I've run across for exorcising a demon are, shall we say, less than fucking pleasant… make 'The Exorcist' look like a pleasant family outing."

"The torture and rape weren't much fun either, and she could spit out Empathy fields like nobody's business, made me enjoy all that crap…" Rettah shuddered a bit.

"That's the kind of thing that makes me remember just why I do what I do," Falk replied disgustedly, "There's a place and time for using Mind or Empathy, but it sure as _fuck_ isn't in making people do what you want them to." He had a severe, major problem with people fucking with other people's minds.

Rettah nodded in agreement and said, "No fucking kidding. She did finally get what was coming to her after fucking around a bit too much on Corstad. Fucked up the whole mall for a while there… Needless to say, it wasn't long before somebody noticed."

Falk nodded. "It's the ones who get too obvious and draw the wrong kinds of attention that get dealt with in a hurry, the sneaky fucks are the ones to really look out for."

"Not to mention this one time that Jami decided to create a very detailed mockup of classical hell… complete with a tacky 1950's kitchen…"

"I've heard of that one, of course." Falk smirked. "But as long as he stays in his basement I'm find with live and let live."

" _Hell_ if I know what he's doing down there," Rettah said. "Nothing good I'd bet, but I'm sure as hell not going to go knocking to find out what. I don't fancy being submerged in molten lava again."

Falk shrugged. "Until he decides to do something, no need to stir things up, there's sure as fuck enough trouble elsewhere to deal with."

"Yeah, like right fucking here," Rettah muttered irritably, glancing outside and taking another look over the news absently.

The look outside took Rettah's mind off checking the news, at least for the moment, as they passed the far edge of the storm and streaked toward something odd that took her a minute to figure out… and then she realizes she's looking at a _wall_ of water rushing outward in the same direction they were going, and it was around half as high as they were!

"Shiit," Rettah murmured. "Where's a Hydromancer when you need one?"

Falk looked out and swore quietly, then shook his head grimly, "Too much fucking energy behind that, and more's being poured into it from outside… That's gonna hit the mainland like a fucking nuke."

"So… What's that you were saying about playing around with time?" Rettah said.

"Drop me off at the coast," Falk said, looking at the pilot, who just nodded, then looked at Rettah. "Any idea what the population of India is? It's in the billion or so range. I can't let that thing hit, not like this. You go on and find the next piece, I'll call in when I can."

Rettah nodded grimly and said, "What're you gonna do?"

"Whatever works." Falk smiled thinly. "Whatever works. Gonna have to block off the power being fed to it first, though…" he trailed off absently as his senses turned to other tasks while they streaked past the tsunami and toward the mainland.

Rettah nodded quietly and waited for them to arrive, going to glance at the news in the meantime but dreading it. The news couldn't possibly get worse, or so Rettah could hope, as she tuned in to find that someone apparently found a way to re-create the old Chicago fire… particularly ingenious considering the safeguards built into an arcology of that size, but also exceedingly lethal. Initial estimates suggested no survivors in the inferno… in a city of ten-plus million.

"Bloody hell," she whispered as she looked over it, shaking her head and sighing some more.

Keytar and Darksong didn't even ask, they'd been quietly keeping up on events as the trip has gone on between listening to the conversation. Their expressions had flickered from pale to suppressed anger to sorrow…

Shortly thereafter, they reached the southern tip of India and the lead plane dropped down to let Falk off. "Get that piece and get the hell out," he said, "I'll call for a pickup soon as I can," then climbed out.

Rettah had gotten a basic direction to follow now, crossing over the border apparently was the key, and it pointed them north toward Calcutta. Rettah directed the pilot over toward where she sensed the thing, leaning back to look over at her companions.

"This whole thing is crazy…" she said quietly. "I…"

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I don't feel fine…" Darksong sang softly, then offered a weak smile as she shook her head sorrowfully. "We all must do what we can, and the rest is in Gaia's hands."

The pilot took them along at her direction, reaching the towering mass of the twin Calcutta arcologies.

"He said it was in a temple somewhere around here…" Rettah said, peering out about at where they were approaching.

The sprawling ruins of Old Calcutta were largely abandoned, the new technologies and ways of doing things easily supporting the massive population inside the arcologies. There was an exception, though, in a walled complex that was brightly lit and had a throng of people gathered to pay homage to one of the most dreaded of Hindu gods… Kali.

"Yeah, why do I get the feeling that's where we'll have to go?" Rettah muttered dryly. "Bring us down near that temple."

The planes set down near the walled temple complex and the brood poured out to get ready to move, they were all looking at Rettah now for orders since it would seem Falk passed that over somewhere on the way. Jets hummed with power as the planes took off again and move to a holding pattern, and it was only the sheerest luck that Rettah's looking in the right direction as a swirl of dust outlined… something unseen.

Rettah peered intently in that direction warily, fully expecting a fight. She gestured to the others to be on alert, indicating what she was looking at and wondering what the hell _now_ … Nothing moved in the immediate vicinity as the pack and the broodmembers took a good look around… then suddenly Ruth vanished in a blur of motion and a moment later had a slender Indian woman held in an armbar, a silver-glittering knife held at her throat.

"Not sure _what_ you think you're doing here," Ruth said quietly, forcing the woman forward into the guarded circle.

"Who is this?" Rettah wondered, raising an eyebrow and looking at her.

"The quessstion," came a sibilantly hissing voice at Rettah's ear a moment before something sharp presses at _her_ throat, "Isss who are _you_? Ah-ah," the serpent warned with a flash of its eyes, "One move and ssshe diesss, we are familiar with the waysss of hunting the Garou."

Rettah tensed, not trying to move, and said, "I'm Rettah Eiram. What do you want?"

"Releassse her, and we will talk," it said quietly.

"Fine," Rettah said impatiently. "But if it's all the same to you, I don't really have time for much chitchat at the moment."

Ruth released the woman slowly and stepped back, the snake flicked the blade away and moved quickly to one side to turn an unblinking gaze on those assembled. Rettah recognized the form, or at least the similarity, to the one that she saw Falk assume in the Battlefield.

"What do you want here?" the snake asked, then shapeshifts back to its human form, a sinuous young man with dark hair and eyes, enough to be brother to the woman.

"Well, I want to get in there, get what I came for, and then leave, preferably with my hide intact," Rettah said.

The man smirked faintly, "Then you have a problem, as the devotees of Kali have returned, the Thuggees of old and ill repute. They gather worshippers and cultists in these troubled times, but there is something far more to them."

"Good for them," Rettah said dryly, shaking her head. "I'm trying to save the bloody world here, and if you're gonna try to stop me, well, you're fucking nuts, I can understand fucking around, I can understand trying to conquer the world, I can't understand why anyone would want to destroy it."

"That is the way of the Destroyer," he replied quietly, "And we have no quarrel with you, so long as you do not interfere in our own business here."

"I don't really care what your business is at the moment, frankly," Rettah said.

The man looked to his partner, smiled thinly, then turned back to Rettah to offer a faint nod before stepping back and fading from view once again.

"The Nagah…" Darksong said, then shook her head lightly and fell silent.

Rettah sighed and turned to head in toward the temple. "Well of course they're probably up to no good, I'll worry about that later. Let's get what we came for."

Darksong darted to catch up with Rettah and shook her head firmly in denial, her voice deliberately quiet as they move nearer the temple. "The Nagah are Gaia's own, though their purpose is… shadowy at best. They work ever in threes, so there was either one lost or another we didn't see."

"Mh," Rettah said as she approached the place. She didn't really care what they were up to at the moment as long as they weren't in her way. If the town was being invaded by aliens, there were slightly more pressing matters than to arrest someone for robbing a bank. They could be dealt with later if necessary, she figured. Each to their own duty, and Gaia's watchers and assassins were fulfilling theirs this night, whether it was recognized or not… they didn't seek recognition from any save their own.

Ruth sidled up next to Rettah and quirked a brow as she asked quietly, "How do you want to go about this? There were a hell of a lot of people in there, and I can't believe they're all part of it."

"As quickly as possible," Rettah said. "Preferably without having to kill everyone here. Is there a back door or something? People need to start installing convenient back doors into their holy places so people can sneak in more easily."

Ruth smirked and shook her head, unfortunately there tended to be a shortage of back doors in ancient temples since the people who were supposed to be there didn't need them and the ones that weren't… well, that was what the curtain wall was for. As they scouted about and discovered this, Rettah felt something very, very powerful building up from somewhere inside…

"That can't be good…" Rettah muttered, heading around toward the entrance with a bit of a sigh.

No, in fact it was very bad as they saw when they stopped near the gates and saw the tendrils of dark magic begin to rise in the main courtyard of the complex. The crowd was chanting the name of their ancient Goddess, growing ever more fervent as they saw the signs that She was listening…

"Shit," Rettah whispered as she headed for the door. No help for it, she thought.

There were thousands of people packed into the courtyard as she dashed in, and the chanting reached a feverish pitch… and then the screams began. Rettah couldn't see the cause at first through the masses, but the effect was dramatic as those nearest the source pushed outward in horror and the crowd began to swell and sway.

"What the fuck…" Rettah muttered as she stared inside for a moment.

She tried to focus and see where she might find the artifact piece she's looking for, one way or another. The piece of the artifact lay inside the temple proper, or more appropriately _beneath_ the cellars under it, which left the problem of getting there. That was not a small problem, either, as tendrils of death energies whipped out through the crowd and encircled them in the ceremony, and the screaming began in earnest as they were trapped and their lives began to drain away, the weakest falling to the ground as husks in mere moments…

Rettah invented a few new swear words as she frantically scanned about and tried to find a way down there without wading through what was going on in there.

"Gaia…" Keytar muttered in horror, then shook his head as he noticed the first of the corpses twitching, then rising slowly, flesh falling away in dried clumps to leave only a skeleton behind. "Alley oop, babe," he said and grabbed Rettah, wings flaring out and jet firing to send them streaking over the wall and the courtyard.

"The stuff of nightmares…" Rettah muttered as she glanced down.

Definitely more than the worshippers had bargained for, as they tried and stamped away in diminishing numbers only to be sucked dry when they couldn't escape the circle. Keytar didn't say anything, only squeezed her gently as they landed… and pulled out a gun to blow the brains out of one of the priests standing nearby. There were two others, only now waking to the realization that things weren't going as they should be…

Ready to roast somebody if they decided to give them trouble, Rettah continued to try to find the way down. The two priests weren't looking to give anyone trouble, well, not any more than they'd already given, and they dove for cover as Keytar unloaded a flurry of shots vindictively in their direction, wounding both before turning and following after Rettah into the temple proper. The temple was unnaturally dark and lit only by the guttering of torches in sconces on the walls. Overall it was very appropriately moody for the main temple chamber, which was dominated by a towering representation of the six-limbed Goddess with six priests chanting a low rhythm in a circle before it.

Rettah frowned a bit as she peered about, and glanced briefly back to see if the others had followed them. "I always hated organized religion," Rettah commented quietly.

The priests that she continued to ignore along the way weren't idly standing by, and while she looked around they completed their chant and fell to a hush as a dark light shimmers around the six-armed statue and its eyes opened to look out on the world with a glitter of hellfire in its eyes…

Keytar wasn't in the mood for any more of their crap and opened fire on the bastards responsible for the thousands of deaths outside. With the first death, the feeling of rising power froze and then dropped suddenly to nothing as the others wail and fall over, the backlash ripping through and killing them. Finding the cube was simple at that point, as no others remained to impede their progress.

Rettah grumbled a bit and headed inside and looked about for a moment and up toward the globe and said, "What the hell did Trigger do in the last place, anyway?"

"Uhhh, no clue," Keytar replied, shrugging helplessly, "Though the way he made it sound it had something to do with it being a soul construction or something, whatever _that_ means…"

"He just like… reached inside and pulled it out… And you know, if he failed, this place is going to be getting rather damp shortly."

"Yeeeah, we might not have a hell of a lot of time," Keytar agreed.

She tried to bring to mind whatever weaves he had used, somewhat grateful that the Elkandu considered being able to detect weaves to be as basic a skill to using magic as knowing how to read, and tried to duplicate whatever it was he did. It took a few minutes of trial and error, the elder race had never really intended the cubes to be removed from their casings, but she did manage to pull it out after a bit of work and effort, though the strain brought a cold sheen of sweat as she brushed against the subtle but substantial powers at work here.

Rettah sighed and wavered a bit, wiping her brow and putting the cube in her pocket with others. "Remind me if I ever need to conceal the pieces of an ancient artifact, to include an 'open' button…" She went to stumble toward the door again.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Keytar grinned thinly and follows her out, concerned, but mainly keeping an eye out for any signs of danger on the way out. He stopped as they returned to the ceremonial chamber with the statue of Kali… she was now holding a freshly-severed head and the decapitated body had been laid at her feet. From the dress, the man was probably a high priest of some kind.

Rettah paused for a moment and quirked an eyebrow at the statue, scanning about to see if there was anything else alive nearby that might try to attack them or if the statue itself had somehow done it or something. There was no sign of what might have done it, though the ceremonial knotted scarf that was the symbol of the Thugees looked as though it was tossed atop the corpse almost casually, carelessly.

Keytar shook his head, "Let's get outta here and try to avoid… whatever's left outside."

"No kidding," Rettah agreed, heading out quickly and cautiously.

The skeletal throng was still out there, its numbers enhanced by those who had since fallen to the vile magic, and they turned scarlet glowing eye sockets as one toward the two intruders at the temple entrance… but couldn't step foot that close. Keytar snagged Rettah around the waist and didn't waste any time lifting them back across the curtain wall before the horde could decide what to do.

Ruth, Darksong, and the miscellaneous broodmembers were nearby and move to meet up again when they saw the flash of movement over the wall.

"We got it," Rettah said. "Let's get the hell out of here already."

She didn't have to tell them twice, and the ultralights dropped from their patrols quickly to pick everyone up again. Once they were down, Rettah went to climb aboard again posthaste, again wondering how Falk was doing.

"Any word?" Keytar asked their pilot, echoing Rettah's thoughts as they lifted again.

The pilot shook his head briefly, "Not yet. Landing time for the wave was projected in four minutes, so we'll know one way or another soon."

"Either way, head on over that way where we left him," Rettah said.

"Right," the pilot replied, relayed the course, and veered sharply off to speed back in that direction.

They could see the wave as they approached, but they didn't notice the flickering of time's passage that began other than the oddity of the wave seeming to be disassembled and re-directed a few hundred feet at a time until it was 'only' about a hundred feet high and perhaps a mile wide as it neared the shore… This ain't New Orleans, but it'll do, Falk thought to himself, the strain of the massive exertion of opposing the purposeful powers set to moving the wave draining him, but the final step was far simpler than the ones before as the wave crashed into an invisible levee and recoiled in a swirling chaotic surf.

"Holy, what the…" Rettah breathed as she watched the oddity below. "A few thousand years to practice indeed." She shook her head slowly.

Falk looked up and smiled faintly at the sound of the Dragonflies passing overhead, then gave a moment's more attention to make sure that there wouldn't be anything more than a heavy surf to hit the shore before focusing on the mind of one of his brood as a beacon and transporting himself. "Well that was fun," he said drily, leaning back into the seat in the plane and letting out a slow breath.

"Africa," Rettah said to the pilot before turning to Falk. "How the hell did you do that?"

The pilot cast a sidelong glance at his Sire, then nodded and set them in motion.

Falk chuckled quietly, "Add a little time, some water, a dash of Telekinesis, some Anti-magic to keep the bastards from reinforcing it, stir vigorously and let simmer…"

Rettah just stared at him, clearly rather impressed. "That's… just… a hell of a lot of raw power flying around."

"If there's something I learned as a human," Falk replied quietly, "It was to take whatever tools you could get your hands on, improve them, and always keep an eye out for new and better ways to use them." He shrugged faintly. "Magic's a tool just like any other."

"Yeah…" Rettah drawled, setting in for the flight and taking a glance over the news in the meantime.

Nothing newly-horrific had come up in the meantime, just further reports of the various riots all over the place and updates on the Hawaiian island chain's slow destruction. The tsunami did get a blurb, mostly people wondering what the hell happened, about the only good news to be had at the moment.

"Let's get this done already…" she muttered. "One more piece, and then… Who the hell am I supposed to give it to?"

"Don't look at me, I got no idea what to do with it." Keytar grinned slightly.

It wasn't too terribly long before they reach the coast of Africa and Rettah again felt the insubstantial pull of the alien device. Rettah gave the pilot directions to where she thought it is, then said back to them, "Well, he said somebody with the will, courage, and power, and said while I might have the will and courage I don't have the power…"

"One step at a time," Falk replied blandly, "We don't even know what's waiting for us at the next station. They've all been real fucking fun so far, so I doubt this'll be any different."

"Yeah, no kidding," Rettah said. "I'm sure thinking about it is going to not matter a whit if we all get killed over there." She smirked.

"The power of positive fucking thinking," Falk said drily, then looked at the course display, "Looks like ten minutes, and not a fucking sign of life down there." He smirked. "Nor bloodsuckers, shambling dead, or anything else. Don't exactly looking like the fucking Lion King's at home."

"They're probably just all waiting to spring out of the woodwork to try to fuck us over," Rettah commented.

"Dunno." Falk shrugged. "Picking up a bunch of dead crap all over the place, but none of it has that extra something that suggests it's gonna get up and bite us in the ass. Have to see."

The flight there was only a few minutes more, and they found themselves on the ground in a setting that Rettah recognized from her 'dream', a watering hole with a tumble of ruins nearby that she knew housed the final fragment.

Rettah looked off toward the ruins and said, "Well, here goes nothing then." She glanced aside to her companions and headed off to the ruins.

Nothing leapt out to greet them as they approached, the savannah was unnaturally quiet, quiet as the tomb, not even any carrion birds or insects buzzing or chirping. That stillness was interrupted as they got within around ten feet of the archway leading into the ruins as a man stepped casually out of the shadows, then folded his arms and rested a shoulder against the frame with a smirk. Rettah recognized him from the newsnet, but it was Falk that confirmed her suspicions as he swore a blue streak after looking at the man.

"Sonuvabitch," Falk muttered.

"Is that any way to greet an old friend?" the man asked drily, appearing completely unconcerned as the brood spread out to provide interlocked fields of fire.


	9. Fire

"So who the hell is this?" Rettah asked, raising an eyebrow and letting some flames flicker along her fingers warily as she looked over to him intently.

"The crazy old bastard himself," Falk muttered, sizing up the other and not liking what he saw _at all_.

Jez'kai just smiled warmly, "Why thank you, dear Mr. Falk, you always _did_ know the nicest compliments to pay." His gaze slid dismissively away from Falk and latched onto Rettah, the smile remaining firmly in place as he went on, "Forgive the lack of formal introductions, I am Jez'kai."

"How did I guess," Rettah said dryly. "Aren't you supposed to be like, dead?"

"Merely a trifle, I assure you, I've done it before without any ill effects," Jez'kai replied, flicking a non-existent speck of dust from his suit sleeve, "Why even the delightful Mr. Falk here has seen me to that vacation time twice." He chuckled drily.

Rettah smirked faintly, the flames coiling up her forearms. "Well, then, in that case, I'm sure you won't mind one more."

"Oh please don't be so dreary, dear girl," Jez'kai replied, pushing away from the frame idly, "I've come to make you an offer you simply _can't_ refuse, and I'd be more than willing to accommodate your associates as well. You see, my little friends are somewhat important to what I have planned, and while they are, perhaps, a little rambunctious at the moment, can you blame them after being imprisoned for millions of years?"

"They're going to destroy the bloody planet!" Rettah snapped.

Jez'kai sighed. "Please, no melodramatics. I'll admit they're a trifle, mm, exuberant at the moment, but that will be curtailed soon enough and turned to a far more productive state of affairs. One that, I might add, would certainly hold a place of your choosing within it."

"Oh, how cliche," Rettah said, smirking. "Let me look at the script, what's my line here? Something like 'I would never deal with a monster like you!' I'd imagine. You know what? The villain never wins."

"Tsk, how short-sighted of you." Jez'kai smirked faintly, "Villainy is a matter of perspective only, I prefer to think of it as creative rearrangement of an unacceptable managerial hierarchy. The world really is so very dull and drab, you know, and has so much _delightful_ possibilities."

"Why don't you go fuck with somebody else's universe instead? I'm sure the Elkandu would be delighted to see you. "

"Ah, but that wouldn't be _home_ , now would it?" Jez'kai smiled thinly. "They say that home is where the heart is, and I've found that to be remarkably true, even with all its foibles and flaws I find myself irresistibly drawn to it and desire to make it far grander than the pale and mundane shadow it is now."

"You're stalling and the only reason you said any such thing to me is because you think I might actually stop you," Rettah pointed out. "Now, give me one good reason why I shouldn't see about sending you off to being dead again like you're supposed to be?"

"Oh do be realistic, woman!" Jez'kai snorted disdainfully. "None of you here can do the least thing to me, I'm hardly concerned. I'm merely trying to give you a chance to be reasonable and do the," he smirked, "right thing. I'll even overlook your charmingly-hotheaded insults and insinuations to offer one last time…"

"I'm not hotheaded," Rettah said, smirking, letting some flames lick along her scalp to give the appearance that her hair was on fire. "I just can't understand why anyone, evil megalomaniac or no, would want to destroy the world. Conquer it, sure, I can understand that, but why would you want to destroy it?"

"Because it's a flawed creation, my dear," Jez'kai replied calmly, "It has such bothersome and trifling spirits connected to it that it would take simply _forever_ to clean house if I just moved in. Much simpler to begin anew, believe me, and make it wholly to order."

"No, you just want to destroy it out of some grudge against it," Rettah said. "If all you wanted to do was create a new planet, you wouldn't need to destroy the one that's here to do that, you could just as easily make another one somewhere else."

"Mm, no," Jez'kai replied. "You see, one of those troublesome spirits is Gaia, and I'd really prefer to dispense with her before branching out. You know how bad neighbors can be, knocking over your trash cans, stealing your newspapers, letting their annoying children run screaming around like heathen barbarians, that sort of thing."

"Well, I'm afraid I'm rather fond of this world and would rather not let you destroy it," Rettah said, flames outlining her body. "Now. Stand aside." She moved toward the archway.

"I think not." Jez'kai smiled unpleasantly as leathery wings unfolded. "You see I fully intend to have those little trinkets of yours, whether you wish it or not. What are you doing?" he snapped suddenly with a flare of red in his eyes as he looked in Falk's direction, "Surely you jest!"

The vampire hadn't been idle, nor expected any other outcome, and had been placing weaves in the minutes she'd been talking.

Rettah felt a presence at the edges of her mind and Falk smiled faintly at her, 'Take the reins, the focus is yours, I'm gonna have to run the defenses so we don't get our asses handed to us,' he tepped, and she could feel a tendril of power like a live wire offered to her.

Rettah took it and took her cue and directed offensive power toward Jez'kai without hesitation. Jez'kai laughed mockingly as the power lashed out and he brushed it aside with contemptuous ease. His form shifted, assuming the much larger demonic aspect he'd re-manifested in, and Rettah could feel a wave of fear and terror batter at her mind. That onslaught would doubtless have been overwhelming without the defensive weave being tightly woven and reinforced around them all for body, mind, and soul.

"Fuck off, asshole," Rettah snarled, also letting her form shift, albeit perhaps to not quite so impressive a one.

Normal Fire might not help much, but… She tested to see just what sorts of powers were available to her at the moment. There was a very broad array of abilities open to her at the moment, and the power levels were enhanced even further by the gestalt that linked Falk's brood to him and through him to her. She now got an idea of just what he can tap into, from basic fire to refined Time, Void, Blood Magic… he's been a _very_ busy vampire.

Rettah was suitably impressed, but she didn't actually _know_ how to do many things with talents she was unfamiliar with besides brute force. But Soul against demons… she doubted even Falk knew how to do soulfire, and knew well enough it was more than just shoving Soul and Fire together… But at the moment, she was fairly motivated to try. It might not be so simple a matter, but at times motivation could provide a breakthrough due to sheer desperation or determination. Rettah knew about it and tried weaving the two together, and as she did she felt Falk's analytical interest turned briefly from his own wardings to consider and refine her own approach… Jez'kai, to say the least, was not happy as the closest thing to Erebus this side of the Umbra lashed out to engulf him.

A high-pitched howl erupted from him a moment before he vanished from the material plane to parts unknown. Rettah stared as the distinctive black flames engulfed her enemy in a rage, and only after he had vanished did she stop and blink for a moment to realize just what she had done… She at least had the forethought of mind to not stand there dumbstruck like an idiot and moved to take advantage of the opening and headed inside.

Falk and the pack followed her inside, the brood remained outside to guard the rear. He was somewhat thoughtful as he said, "Funny, I don't remember seeing anything like that mentioned in any of the notes I read, yet you clearly thought of Suzcecoz in association with it." Oh yes, it was something he would definitely remember…

"That… was soulfire," Rettah told him quietly. "I don't think she'd have ever put it into any of her notes… she was _very_ careful about not letting it fall into the wrong hands, because it can completely destroy a soul, and even if it doesn't it can severely weaken it…"

"Very, hmm, useful tool," Falk replied equally quietly, "And I can definitely see why she'd be cautious… not that there's probably more than a handful that would even have the requisite ability or skill to do it anyway." He shrugged faintly. "Too bad it won't kill or hurt him permanently, there were some really _nasty_ fucking links woven into his ass."

Rettah didn't think it would have come out as efficient or refined as Suzy's soulfire, as she had worked on perfecting it for centuries, but still, it was _soulfire_ … Not that she'd ever be able to use it without assistance or a lot more training, but still. "Best get this over with. He'd not have tried to get me to join him if he didn't think we could stop him."

Falk would wait till he can spend an hour or two with some breathing space to look at it a bit closer, for now… "Last piece ahead." They made their way inside without further incident, and Falk hmmed thoughtfully as he looked around the crystal chamber, "Now why didn't old Jezzums come in and get this himself, I wonder?"

"The guy in my dream said that they couldn't get into the chambers themselves…" Rettah said. "Warded I guess. I'd imagine that has something to do with it." She nodded toward the globe.

"If it's enough to keep _him_ out, I think it bears tearing these weaves apart a little later," Falk said, "But for now…" He walked over and slipped his hand into the globe to retrieve the final cube and handed it off to Rettah.

Rettah took it and glanced it over and put it into her pocket with the rest of them, and said, "Now, I suppose, the question remains of just who I'm supposed to give them to…"

"Just what were you supposed to do with the things?" Falk asked idly, his vision turning to study the _very_ subtle and intricate weaves around this place. What the hell _was_ it about them that not only kept the spirits out but Jez'kai as well? Hmm, hmm, hmm.

Rettah repeated what she had been told to do with them when she found them thoughtfully.

"Right," Falk replied, "So basically what you've got is four very nasty little soul traps that're supposed to weaken the things, then somehow imprison them again or otherwise banish the bastards."

"And obviously I've no idea how that might be done," Rettah said helplessly, pulling them all out to look them over thoughtfully.

"The same way a gestalt is formed," Falk replied simply, turning to point at the cubes, "This place, these people and the tech they used, it was alive, so those're not only soultraps but synthetic souls of sorts. That's what was bugging me here… they can't get in because the souls here are linked and don't _want_ them here."

Rettah frowned deeply and glanced about the room thoughtfully. "Well… whatever's gotta be done, we better figure it out quick before we don't have a world left to save."

"Okay, the way I see it is this," Falk said, "As of this moment in time, there's…." he thought about, "roughly a handful of people who have the know-how and the power to pull it off and decide what to do when it's done. You have to decide whick one of them to pass it to."

"Who all exactly?" Rettah wonders, raising an eyebrow.

"Morrison, of course." Falk smirked. "You don't think he pulled all this shit together without having his _own_ shit together? Nuh-uh. Then there's that old fucking shark, Ceaseless Tides, you don't get to be older than the dinosaurs without knowing a few things." he hmmed, "There's Inari, though you're taking your own chances when you deal with the foxes, crazy bastids, and then there's yours truly. Each has its pros and cons, since you gotta think what's gonna happen _after_ these bastards are weakened."

Rettah thought on that for a moment and said, "Fine, let's go find Morrison then." She sighed a bit and went to put the artifact pieces back in her bag once again.

"Not a bad call." Falk smiled faintly. "Always pays to keep in touch with your friends. I'll have one of my brood drop you off in the Selenis area, the rest of us are needed elsewhere I think."

Rettah gave a nod of agreement and said, "Hopefully not for long." She headed out and said, "Good luck with that."

They made their way back out of the alien complex without incident, and Keytar interrupted as Falk went to talk to one of the pilots, "Nah, no need, I got it covered." Keytar shapeshifted into a duplicate Dragonfly. "May as well have all of your people doing what they can, we can take it from here."

Falk quirked a brow, then smirked, nodded, gathers his people, and departed. Rettah gave a faint grin and nodded respectfully toward the vampires before climbing into Keytar.

<Dolen> Darksong lightly kicks one of the landing gear with a faint grin, then climbs aboard as well. "Watch it bats, or you're walkin' next time," Keytar mock warns. She just smirks and settles back for the trip home… and doesn't tune in to the news.

"Hopefully, this nightmare is almost over," Rettah said, leaning back and letting out a ragged sigh.

"Don't get your hopes up, babe," Keytar gently cautioned as he lay in a course and they streaked off, "Even puttin' these four spirits down for the count ain't gonna end it, there'll be a hell of a lot of repair work ta be done, and that's not even mentionin' that bastard still bein' out there."

"Yeah…" Rettah said quietly. "But still. … I can't believe I managed to cast soulfire…"

"Nasty lookin' stuff," Keytar agreed, altering the course after checking in with the weather sats to avoid a nasty storm brewing in the Atlantic.

"No kidding…" Rettah said softly. "And there's more fingers on my hand than know how to do it too…"

"I'm not sure if I should be worried or not that one of those may be Trigger now," Keytar replied drily.

"I don't doubt it, he helped me put the weaves together…" Rettah said.

"Good thing he's on our side, and always has been," Keytar said. "That's a weird story about his Sire bein' some kinda funky lupus leech that had a lot to do with the creation of the Sept of Dreams."

Rettah raised an eyebrow and says, "'Some kinda funky', that's the technical term right?"

Keytar snickered. "Not really, no, but the guy was really damned weird, somethin' about him was just a liiiiittle bit off, but he worked openly with the Garou and did more than some of our own did."

"Interesting," Rettah commented. "What's our ETA?"

"Looks like…" Keytar ran some calculations, "'Bout a half hour."

Rettah gave a nod, and compulsively checked the news again. "Here's to hoping then…"

If anything, the news was looking grimmer than before, with an unprecedented-level earthquake shattering the San Andreas fault line, the 'Big One' that people had been worried about forever. The devastation was immense, and a sizeable chunk of the west coast had been buried under the sea… mountain property was the new beachfront all up and down the coast.

Rettah sank down in her seat and glanced over toward Darksong quietly and back. "It's like the Planar Wars all over again. Well. Except it's not quite that bad yet and hopefully … won't get there."

The most ominous news, perhaps, was the utter _lack_ of news that's coming out of some parts of the world. Normally it could be said that 'no news is good news' but that was somewhat doubtful with the current state of affairs. Entire countries had dropped off the map as far as reports went, including China, Russia, some parts of Europe, and most of Africa.

Darksong said quietly, "The Apocalypse is come, only slender chance may stop it."

"To think this world sidestepped World War III and the Elkandu Crisis only to come down to this," Rettah said.

"It's not done yet," Darksong replied with a wavering smile, then shook her head and looks out into the darkening skies.

The east coast came into view soon, and Rettah started running across some actual favorable news along the way… things like riots ending and natural disasters seeming to still of their own accord. It wasn't all good, but at least there's _some_ to be heard.

"It's not over yet… and if even something survived because of our efforts that might have otherwise been destroyed, it was still worth it…" Rettah said quietly.

Darksong nodded quietly, her expression bleak as they streaked over the coast and upward along it toward Maine. Passing over New York, they saw fires glowing brightly in the night, but they were past them before any real impression can be made. Rettah sat quietly through the final leg of the journey, hoping that it wasn't already too late and that some way could yet be found to stop this all.

They arrived at the sept shortly thereafter, and while there were signs of some trouble in the nearby arcology, at least it was still standing and wasn't engulfed in flames or pouring out rioters. The sept itself was on high alert, though there weren't nearly as many defenders there as there usually would be, they'd been sent here, there, and everywhere to do whatever can be done. Rettah climbed out and takes a deep breath once they were on the ground and proceeded to try to find the man she's looking for, asking around as necessary.

Betty was a good source of information, even if she did look a little frazzled just at the moment, though the smells emanating from the kitchen were a step beyond the usual and there were a few lupus hanging about drooling and metis cubs torn between anticipation and crying over the tense mood. "Hiya Rettah," she said, "What can I do for you? Special night for dinner at least, if you're hungry."

"Food can wait," Rettah says, waving a hand. "Right now I need to find Morrison asap. You know where I can find him?"

Betty shook her head, "He's not here, he left a message saying he was going to talk to Gaia…" There weren't a hell of a lot of people in the world that would do that, she wasn't nearly so easygoing as entities like Shazmar.

Rettah wavered a bit and said, "This can't wait. I've got something that may be able to put a stop to this crap that's going on.."

"I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do." Betty shrugged helplessly. "And the Glass Walker cellphones don't even reach there, they've tried."

Rettah let out a ragged sigh and put a hand to her forehead and said, "How can I find him?"

Keytar winced. "That'd mean getting to the Celestial Realm and ascending the Stairs, that's not an easy or quick trip."

"Would you suggest trying to find somebody else then?" Rettah said quietly.

Keytar sighed and shrugged lightly. "Dunno, that or wait for him to return," he looked at Betty, "How long ago did he leave?" Turns out that Morrison had left early this morning.

Rettah looked to see what time it was now, and said, "So when do you suppose he might get back, then?"

It was late evening by this point, hence the hungry anticipation in the air, and the metis cubs huddled together in one corner all looked up as one and brighten considerably as a familiar face pushed a cart out of the kitchen. Had to say one thing for lupus, they certainly had odd priorities, and Nicholas's guardians had whisked him away up here before loping off to other duties. Definitely good for morale, at least, as the cubs greeted his emergence with a much easier stance and forget about anything else for a while as he served them a meal made of their own catch.

Keytar coughed lightly, seeing that, then replied, "Impossible ta say, babe, it depends on just what Gaia has to say, y'know?"

Rettah slumped down in a chair, the events of the day really starting to get to her, and mumbled, "I'd hope she'd say to get back here…"

Betty went back to her duties, serving some of the Garou who were between duty shifts and waiting for the treat… not quite the festive air that would normally preside with the guest, but that was only to be expected. At least the metis cubs were quieted and happily gnawing their way through a plentiful meal, all at least temporarily right in their world. Darksong and Keytar took seats near Rettah, wearily.

"One cannot know the mind of Gaia," Darksong said softly, "Perhaps there is more that is yet unseen to us."

"I don't know what else to do…" Rettah said. "I guess I'll wait a bit but if he doesn't show soon…"

"Could always start lookin' for one of the other two," Keytar replied. "Though I wouldn't have a _clue_ where to begin lookin' for the Kitsune, and it wouldn't surprise me that both of em are equally busy doin' what they can with the mess at hand."

Rettah just slumped down in her chair staring at the table, feeling thoroughly haggard, and said, "Dunno where to start, couldn't even think about eating right now…"

Darksong shook her head lightly, a sad smile rising as she reached over to lightly touch Rettah's cheek. "You may only do what you can, there are times where the only course is to wait for a time. Don't bleed for it…"

Rettah sighed and said, "Fine, I guess I'll have to eat something then… ugh, jet lag, when the hell was the last time I ate…"

"Many hours past," Darksong replied quietly. "Definitely time to do so again."

At a show of interest, Betty brought over plates of food, the special of the day being succulent beef with various vegetables. Rettah ate, although not showing too much interest in her food. She couldn't help but think of all the people that are dying while she sat here, and stopped to wipe her eyes. The mood was clearly one that's shared, as those who came through were far more subdued than they would otherwise be. Only the cubs seemed to be in fine spirits, even as they finish their meal, as Nicholas took it on himself to keep them company for a while… he always was a sucker for the kids.

Rettah murmured quietly, "Why the hell did he try to get me to join him? DId he seriously think I would?"

"That one was ever a vile and evil megalomaniac," Darksong replied quietly, "How could you possibly consider _not_ doing so when his way is the only possible way?" She smirked and shook her head. "Of course the decision ultimately was made that you were 'unworthy' of it."

Rettah smirked faintly. "More than a little fucked in the head I'd say," she commented. "Ugh. Soulfire's the best he deserves, that one."

"The trouble was ever getting _to_ him," Darksong replied. "History showed again and again his use of those around him for protection and camouflage, and his own abilities to avoid the Reaper's call. Only rarely has that cunning failed him."

"Even Jami eventually learned his lesson after being killed half a dozen times and screwed over more than that…" Rettah muttered.

"I think his insanity is far too advanced for that hope," Darksong said, "That name was well-known even before the eradication of the rest of the Black Spiral Dancers, which suggests he has danced that spiral a great many times and it's shattered his mind whole."

"Only the truly insane would want to destroy the world…" Rettah said, sighing.

"But hey, he was gonna rebuild it, right?" Keytar snorted in disgust, his own appetite clearly not greatly affected since he was attacking the meal with relish.

"I don't think I'd like to imagine the sort of world he'd like to build," Rettah commented.

Darksong shook her head lightly, her own plate barely touched as she picked at it with a fork. "I've seen the sort of things that one enjoyed and encouraged, the Hive here in Selenis was… not a pleasant place, the best that could be said about it being that great satisfaction was found in seeing it destroyed."

Rettah nodded with a sigh, leaning back and looking at her plate of half-eaten food. She did a quick search through her implants to see if she could find any word of where the others might have been lately, just in case it's necessary. Ceaseless Tides was last reported heading out into the Pacific to see what could be done with the supernatural storm raging there and the spirits that were at the heart of it, the most recent news in that regard was from the weather sats which show it diminishing in ferocity. Inari… she couldn't find _anything_ on him that the GW database didn't tag as highly-suspect as forgery and mis-direction. He _was_ a fox, after all. Given that, she seemed to think it most likely to just keep sitting here for the moment. She continued to pick at her food some more.

Keytar polished off his food and went to get another plate, grinning lightly over at the bright spot in the room where the cubs were playing with large, colorful blocks, gifts from the leech long ago, he knew.

Darksong watched him go and smirked faintly in wonder that he could have a stomach for food just now, and rose quietly, "I'm going to go for a walk."

Rettah gave a nod, and continued to pick at her food absently, her mind clearly elsewhere. Once Darksong was gone, she murmured, "Can't believe we'd go through all that only to run into a wall at this…"

"Relax, babe," Keytar said as he returned and settled back in to resume eating. "Have faith in Gaia and wait a while, it'll all turn out okay." Simplistic, perhaps, but that was part of being Garou, accepting when there was nothing more that could be done just at the moment.

Rettah gave a nod and said, "Suppose you're right…" She continued to eat nervously.

Keytar tilted his head in a shrug and ate, then settled back to sip at some coffee while they waited.

Rettah finished up her food and washed it down with some coffee herself. "Seen so much crap over my lifetime, how much is too much? Not a wonder that rebirth doesn't normally leave memories intact like that, how do people handle it?"

"Mm, dunno," Keytar replied, "Suppose just by tryin' not to think about it too much. Seen a lot of ugly things myself, just like any other wiseguy or shapeshifter in general here, it's a survival tactic to just… let things go."

"It's a wonder the Elkandu Universe recovered from the Planar Wars at all, and that only because of Shazmar's direct interference… And even then, a lot of things were changed forever… Mezulbryst was nothing like how it had been… Many worlds had experienced great shifts in their geography… but then there was the fact that, for over a hundred years, chaos was all the inhabitants of those worlds who had survived knew…"

"Rettah, ya gotta stop knockin' yourself out over this," Keytar replied seriously, "This ain't the Elkandu universe and the people here aren't the same, however it turns out ya gotta realize that they'll keep on keepin' on."

"I'm not knocking myself out," Rettah said. "And I'm not saying they wouldn't."

"Then relax, babe," Keytar said gently and quirked a smile, "We've done what we can for the moment, now you have to listen to your little spirit guide and hand it off to someone else. Waitin's the hard part, I know, but sometimes that's all ya can do."

"Yeah, I'm waiting, I'm waiting," Rettah said, sighing and drinking some coffee. "I'm not trying to knock myself, I'm just trying to talk and keep my mind off what the hell's going on out there, guess it always just seems to end up drifting back to the morbid…"

Keytar started to reply, then broke off as another voice answered gently, "You have to learn to accept when you've done all that you can, and trust to Gaia for the rest." Gideon looked a little wearied by recent events, but retains the quietly regal dignity that's his heritage, and smiled faintly. "I've been told you have something for me."

Rettah relaxed visibly when she saw him and gave a faint smile, and said, "Oh, yeah, and am I glad to see you…" She reached into her pocket to pull out the four objects that they had gone to such trouble to obtain.

Fresh from the road, Gideon snagged the carafe to pour himself a cup of coffee before settling neatly into a seat and taking a savoring sip. "Mm, and what do you have to tell me of these artifacts?" He gave the cubes a cursory glance, then returned his attention fully to Rettah.

Rettah repeated again what she had been told about them in the dream, then what Falk had said about them afterward.

Gideon listened attentively, sipping occasionally at his coffee, then nodded as she finished. "I see, and well worth the haste which Gaia bade me return. You've done well in this."

Rettah inclined her head toward him and the faintest flicker of a smile at the praise. At least it was finally out of her hands, she thought.

"Pass your responsibility unto my keeping and I will see it done," Gideon continued, extending a hand for the objects, "I will need examine their exact nature and determine the best use to turn them to."

Rettah handed them over to him, feeling like the weight of the world has been taken off her shoulders.

Gideon took them and with a little sleight of hand he made them disappear with a faint smile, then drained the last of his coffee and stood. "Get some rest, it sounds like you've had as busy a day as anyone else and could certainly use it." He nodded lightly, then turned to head upstairs.

Rettah let out a sigh and said in Keytar's general direction, "Yeah, sleep, I feel like my legs are about to start protesting about doing anything else…"

Keytar chuckled softly, "Hit Betty up for a room, then go get some sleep, I'm gonna see if there's anythin' that needs doin' around here unless ya want some company."

"Go ahead, I'll just pass out like a log anyway…" Rettah said, staggering to her feet and going to see about that room.

Keytar quirked a smile and got up as she did, gave her a quick hug and sends her on her way to Betty, a room key, and a good night's sleep. He wasn't the least bit tired, other than feeling a bit soul-weary, so he went to see where he might be able to lend a hand for a bit.

Darksong walked alone for a while in the darkness, looking up to the half-full face of Luna, then returned to the lodge. After finding out where Rettah had gone, she snuck in and curled up in a chair nearby, falling finally into a fitful sleep after a while's silent vigil.


	10. The Morning After

Rettah slept soundly, though her mind fitfully kept going back over all the terrible things she had seen and experienced lately and heard of happening, much as she'd prefer otherwise. The night and early morning passed uneventfully, and Rettah woke at the crack of noon. No one was beating on the door, and the faint sound of birdsong from outside would give the illusion that there wasn't a care in the world.

Rettah stirred, rubbing her eyes, getting up and stretching a bit. At least, mercifully, her dreams had managed to drift beyond recent events and she had gotten some decent sleep. She took a deep breath and let it out as she went to head out and find out what had happened. Keytar was nowhere to be seen, but Darksong was groggily nursing a cup of coffee at one of the tables. There wasn't a lot of activity in the main room of the lodge at the moment. Betty was over at the counter, doing some cleaning, but she and a lupus snoozing lazily in a corner were the only other signs of life. Rettah grabbed a cup of coffee and went over to sit across from Darksong as she proceeded to check the news.

Still a lot of bad news, but unlike what might be expected at other times, the _good_ news seemed to be getting more press simply because there was less of it. The massive storm in the Pacific had calmed without any further tsunami warnings, and a couple of the newly-awakened volcanos appeared to have returned to dormancy, along with rioting being quelled in a few places here and there. On the down side, Mr. Stark, or Jez'kai as Rettah would recognize him, has been _very_ active, though he looks very pale and haggard in the appearances he's made.

Darksong looks up as she arrived and offered a wan smile and nod in greeting, "Morning."

Rettah gave a nod to her and said, "Something like that."

For it all to be over already was too much to hope for, clearly, and while the most of it might be out of her hands for the moment, she was damned well not going to sit around if there was anything else she could do. But first, breakfast.

"Mm," Darksong murmured as she unfolded from her seat, the idea of food-food not sounding the least appealing at the moment. "I think I'm going to go to Torn Elkandu for breakfast… care to join me?"

"Okay," Rettah said, standing up slowly as well and stretching a bit more.

Darksong smiled faintly, then Recalled and waited for Rettah to appear before heading for the Crux. "I think I'm getting somewhat spoiled by this place," she remarked idly.

Rettah snickered quietly as she headed along with her. "You could always pack up some cases and bag em," she suggested lightly.

"That's… not a bad idea," Darksong replied, favoring Rettah with a bright smile, "For some reason I didn't really think about it when you and Keytar were talking about coffee and beer. No reason _not_ to have something a little more substantial in there, is there?" She appropriated a table and ordered some bloodwine for herself.

Rettah ordered a large plate of pancakes with maple syrup and strawberry jelly and whipped cream on top with a side of crispy bacon and scrambled eggs. With beer.

Darksong waited for the server to get out of hearing range, then couldn't restrain a soft giggle, "That sounded very good up until you got to the beer. What _are_ you thinking?"

Rettah chuckled softly and said, "Best get a head start on my alcoholism eh?"

"Mm, I'm not much of one to talk." Darksong smirked lightly as their order arrived and she took a long drink of the bloodwine, a little color returning and diminishing the pale.

Rettah dug into her food, feeling considerably better about eating it than she did yesterday at least. Then her foot accidentally struck something furry underneath the table, and a humanoid white tiger crawled out from under it, grumbling a bit.

"Er, sorry," Rettah said.

It certainly _looked_ like a Khan, save for the fact that any of the weretigers in their warform wouldn't have _fit_ underneath the table, and Darksong looked at the creature thoughtfully. He was around six feet and a couple inches tall, and wearing nothing but a belt with a pouch (doubtless of holding) attached to it. He took a seat at a nearby table and grumpily orders a plate of ribs.

Rettah munched on a bit of bacon and noticed Darksong's look and said, "That's a Nali."

Darksong nodded slowly and looked back to Rettah, "Are they shapeshifters? The appearance reminds me of the Khan, one of the Bastet breeds."

Rettah shook her head. "No, although from their innate abilities you'd think so… They all have innate talent with Dream and Earth to some extent or another."

Darksong took a sip of her wine, hiding a smile of amusement in her cup. "Mm, and do they all act like felines?"

"The ones I've seen at any rate. Spend most of their time sleeping."

"Definitely felines, then," Darksong chuckled lightly, "Nothing more satisfying than a good nap in front of a fireplace, apparently, or to have one's ears scratched."

Rettah gave a nod, eating. "There's a lot of races about that look part human and animal yet aren't shapeshifters.."

"What an odd idea, it sounds very sci-fi," Darksong replied lightly, savoring another sip and regaining a bit more color, almost looking normal for her again.

"Yeah, most of em arose out of the War of Transformation," Rettah said. "The three Changers supposedly did a good deal of giving humans animal characteristics, and animals human characteristics… as well as a bunch of other random things. They were supposed to have created such things as dragons, elves, and all that too. They 'created' a lot of things that rose out of memory and dream…"

"Mm, I suppose it's not really so odd in retrospect," Darksong mused, "Humans have had an anthropomorphic tendency for a very long time, anything from giving natural phenomena the aspect of 'gods' they could understand to the shamans of some cultures assuming animal abilities."

Rettah nodded in agreement. "During the War of Transformation, rival city-states attempted to use the three Changers for their own ends to create perfect soldiers and brilliant tacticians and such. Interestingly, one breed of these soldiers used by the city-state of Jaston were 'wolfmen' which bore something of a resemblance to a werewolf in crinos form…"

Darksong nodded slowly, "There _is_ a reason that the Garou were assigned the duties of Gaia's warriors, that form is quite well-suited to the task overall with few others able to really match it. Add their tendency to form packs and it's a very tricky proposition indeed."

"Albrynnia's wolfmen don't appear to have survived to the modern day, though," Rettah said. "They said that the race didn't prove viable in the long run for whatever reason. Though considering what happened to most of the 'mutants' after the war was over, they were driven into the wilderness or to other continents, their war heros suddenly become rejects from society…"

"Mm, humanity _does_ have a delightful habit of disposing of that which isn't the same as themselves," Darksong replies drily, shakes her head, "Not to mention conveniently forgetting when a service of blood is rendered."

"Kind of ironic that these days, humans are in the minority on Lezaria now. Two-thirds of the population there are elves now."

"Really?" Darksong asked with some surprise, "The elves of home have ever been slow to increase their numbers, and faster to fade away, they must be another breed entirely."

"Elves that were created from human stock during the War of Transformation," Rettah said. "The attempt was apparently to create an intelligent and magically inclined race to lead the armies of Jaston, but they ended up thriving far more than any of the others… The Changers created offshoots of them on other worlds as well."

"Ah, I see, so not the ancient Fae at all." Darksong nodded in understanding. "And it sounds as though the humans learned the error of their ways when it came to tinkering with genetics."

"Or at least in trying to force beings far more powerful than them to do their bidding against their will," Rettah said, smirking. "I don't know what happened to the 'real' Fae, although there's some beings on Wilderplane that the Changers claim _they_ weren't responsible for."

"Who are these 'Changers'?" Darksong asked curiously, ordering another glass of wine as the server stops by to see if they need anything.

"Three of them, that were born within a few years of one another, second cousins," Rettah said. "Swamp Kimson, Amanda Kimdaughter, and Harmony Kimchild." Rettah paused expectantly, waiting to see if the aforementioned appeared, which when she failed to do, Rettah continued. "And since they're all still alive today, we've at least got three different perspectives of what happened nine thousand some odd years ago."

"That's quite a bit of history," Darksong replied, "I imagine they keep mostly to themselves by this point, that seems to be a trend for most who live to those ages."

"Amanda runs the Changing salon down on Wind's Road," Rettah said, gesturing vaguely in that direction. "Of course, she always seemed to be the most sane, well-adjusted of them."

Darksong chuckled lightly, "That's an amusing profession to go into after so many years… I assume that means she provides cosmetic changes?"

"Well, according to the advertisements, earjobs are supposed to be popular lately," Rettah said, rolling her eyes. "And she won't under any circumstances turn somebody into hideous mutated monsters."

So Darksong and Rettah chatted a bit over breakfast at the Crux, covering trivialities of the the latest designer ear-bobs and other oddities regarding the Changers of the Elkandu. Darksong took Rettah's suggestion to heart and arranges for a little extra liquid lunch to stash away in her pocket before heading back to the Nexus and the World of Darkness. No new crises had emerged since their departure, thankfully… Just the same old ones that had the shapechangers and their allies scattered all over the world as fire brigades. Rettah went to check in and see where Keytar might have gotten off to and see what there might be she could do to help yet as well.

Keytar was in the lodge's main hall when they returned, elbowed up to the counter and chatting amiably with Betty, they catch the trailing end of a gripe, "…not that I mind running some extra patrols, but I _swear_ I'm gonna kill 'im the next time."

Betty snickered and nodded, "You wouldn't be the first to think of it."

Rettah gave a faint smirk and headed in, giving a casual wave in their general direction as she approached. "Hey, what's up? I didn't miss anything good did I?"

"Well heya sleepyhead." Keytar grinned in greeting. "Nah, just talkin' about the shift I covered so someone could get some rest. I shoulda known better." He smirked. "They didn't warn me that Moondoggy was one a the others running patrols."

Rettah chuckled softly. "Well, that sounds fun. We just stopped by the Crux for breakfast — Darksong wanted some more Stygian wine." She smirked faintly.

"Uuuuuuugh, ew!" Keytar looked at the bat with an expression of mock disgust, she just stuck her tongue out at him and smirked. Didn't bother him, really, that was just a natural aspect that part of the Camazotz dealt with… now the whole leech thing back on Lezaria, _that_ was truly disturbing. "Someone's gonna mistake you for a leech someday," he warned, "Except maybe that leeches got more class."

"Ha, ha, ha." Darksong rolled her eyes.

Betty chuckled, "Can I get you folks anything?" She knew the two shapeshifters well enough and was familiar with their rough teasing, it was still amusing.

Rettah snickered quietly. "No thanks, I'm fine for now." She stretched a bit. "So, anything else I could lend a hand with at the moment?"

"Right now it looks like we're stuck with keepin' an eye on the caern since most of the regulars are out and about fighting one fire or another," Keytar replied, "Though I got a mail from Malcolm sayin' he's sendin' some of the horde up this way to lend a hand, at least those who aren't already doin' other things themselves."

Rettah gave a nod and said, "Righto then." She grabbed a seat and leans back casually. Nothing like a good night's sleep to take your mind off the possible immanent destruction of the world, after all. She pulled a newspaper out of her pocket that she'd picked up in Torn Elkandu and handed it over to him. It was the Daily Seeker, and apparently current events here were headline news.

Keytar smirked as he looked it over, "Not sure if I'm worried about that or not, there's enough weirdos runnin' around this place without adding a weedpatch of the Elkandu variety." 

"Hopefully there's more who'd feel benevolent enough to try to help than weirdos feeling like trying to screw around," Rettah said, shrugging. "They aren't all bad, though their methods sometimes leave something to be desired."

"I'll trust ta what I know, and know I can trust," Keytar replied with a half shrug as he handed the paper back over.

Rettah shoved it in her pocket again. "Never said I thought they'd be _much_ help… just thought it was interesting how they seem to be keeping up news on what's going on in other universes."

Keytar chuckled grimly, "Can ya blame em? Sounds like they've had more than enough problems of their own, no tellin' when somethin' might leap out of someplace else and bite em in the ass."

"No kidding," Rettah said. "I even saw some articles lately on what's going on in the Warhammer universe, where the last invasion fleet came from. Some interesting business that, though I'm glad I'm not there either."

"Sounds like someone needs to put up some fences and immigration agents." Keytar smirked. "Keep all those damned illegal aliens out, we got enough of the homegrown variety whacko to keep us busy."

"Yeah, those nutjobs seem to be keeping more to their own backyard these days than trying to invade anywhere else, as it seems they're under new, slightly saner management lately. That is, it appears they've got somebody who just wants to conquer the universe and not randomly go around causing chaos and killing people."

" _Someone_ could learn a lesson from that," Darksong muttered darkly.

Keytar snorted in agreement. "Yeah, makes a hell of a lot more sense than wantin' to blow the hell out of it all, but who said the other side was playin' with a full deck?"

"Though, I suppose that angle drew some interest as some Elkandu are involved with it… Vanankyte Venari and Zuna Taike are reportedly high up in their command structure. Not sure if it's an entirely _good_ thing considering they're a demon and a Chaos Mage…"

"Heh, most people who wanna take over the world aren't what you'd tend to call good," Keytar said, "And the occasional rare one that _does_ end up doin' it generally doesn't want the damn thing in the first place."

"Yeah, exactly," Rettah said, snickering. "That's how it goes, eh? Besides, everyone knows there are better ways to take over a planet than through brute force."

"Sometimes ya gotta use it though, too," Keytar replied, "There's always gonna be the hard cases who refuse to listen to reason and keep on doin' their own thing whether it's right or not. Just take a look at the fanatics that were over in the middle east, bastards were just _waitin'_ for the opportunity to get back to old feuds." He snorted, "I don't think anyone's gonna miss em much."

"If they're anything like I remember them, probably not," Rettah said. "But still. I rather liked how Theryn 'took over' the universe last time. That was amusing. She just, kind of, declared herself ruler of the universe, had it published in the papers, erected a few statues, then didn't actually _do_ anything."

Darksong and Keytar both looked amused at that, and he snickered, "Well that's one way a goin' about it, the power a the press and all that. Sure as hell beats some of the alternatives."

"Pity she was killed during the Chaos invasion," Rettah said. "She was a damned powerful Chronomancer and Creationist, but even that didn't help her against antimagic."

Keytar shrugged faintly. "It happens, all too damned often where a war is involved." That really wasn't a line of thought he wanted to dwell on, there were way too many people who wouldn't be coming home after this.

Rettah shook her head. "I didn't know her very well, what was surprising about it all was because she was killed by one of her own family…"

"Why's that surprisin'?" Keytar asked, quirking a brow, "That's how it happens a lot when you look through history, there's a lot of families that've wanted nothin' but power and their own advancement, hell with anything else."

"Well, not in this case," Rettah said. "Apparently her mind had been clouded by the Blood God, Khorne, and she ended up regretting it and repenting of her involvement with Chaos…"

"Okay, so she was manipulated, and her family killed her for it or somethin'?" Keytar asked.

"No, the one who killed Theryn was," Rettah said. "I don't know if she even realized who she was really fighting or why through her uncontrolled bloodlust…"

"Sounds like the work of one of the Urge wyrms," Keytar said, "Not a pleasant business, but it all boils down to whether ya have the will and guts to tell somethin' like that to go back to hell or if you cave in to it." He shrugged.

"Hawthorne was never particularly good at restraining her anger in the first place," Rettah said, smirking. "But from what I heard, afterward, she repented, and _Sarhabinse_ cleansed her of the taint of Chaos. Now that's someone that doesn't get seen very often…"

Keytar smirked. "Hawthorne, the same Hawthorne we ran across on the Eyes of Truth runnin' through that nasty little holo porgram involving the bloody dismemberment of hated Star Wars characters? _That_ Hawthorne? Makes sense."

"Yeah. Her," Rettah said, snickering. "Don't know what you'd call Sarhabinse here. Songruler, or Songlord, is his usual title. Rather powerful spirit, usually associated with birds, elves, fire, light, whatnot…"

"Eh, doesn't really ring any bells," Keytar replied, "Though I'm not exactly up on the full range a spirits that have somethin' ta do with the Fae."

Rettah shrugged. "If there's even an analog at all. No idea. That one only turns up every few hundred years usually, seems like. Not, of course, that the Elkandu were really paying much attention to them during that time period." She smirks.

"The closest that they may have to an analog," Darksong mused softly, "Are not spirits so much as very ancient and revered elves, their names writ in the distant mists of time and considered little more than legend to most… the original King and Queen of the Fae, Oberon and Titania."

"There's also Clizhennozuri," Rettah said. "The Singer of Streams. She's not seen very often either, and only deep in the wilderness near running water generally… I don't know if there's any connection." She shrugged.

"The elves are ever associated with song and nature," Darksong replied, "I'm sure there's some similarity at the very least, if not a direct correlation. One of the Fae or a Ceilican, one of the fae werecats would doubtless know more than I."

Rettah gave a nod, and said, "What do you suppose did happen with the 'real' Fae in the Elkandu Universe?"

"From what you've said of your own world, and comparing it to this one," Darksong said, shaking her head sadly, "I have a great doubt that they survived. The Fae here were already on the verge of slipping away before the Awakening, the world had largely forgotten how to dream and everything about it drained a little of their eternal souls away day by day… With the war your world endured, that was likely the killing blow."

"I don't know," Rettah said. "Some say that Sarhabinse had sort of adopted Lezaria's elves…"

"The most powerful spirits and mystical beings are difficult indeed to destroy," Darksong replied, "It would not be any great surprise were they to have been the survivors of what was once the fae in your universe, and seek the solace of family, adopted or otherwise."

"Although," Rettah said. "The Elkandu interfered _severely_ with the development of the 20th century. They didn't just come in after the war to try to clean up… they were mucking about there for decades leading up to it. And actively recruiting, for that matter. They'd had me working on a series of video games intended as promotion, even."

"Uh-huh, which probably didn't help matters a hell of a lot," Keytar snorted, "Then they just kinda conveniently forget the mess that's left behind. Nah, definitely don't need _that_ kind of help here."

"They didn't forget about the mess," Rettah said. "They tried to help, probably screwed things up even more, and _then_ the Nexus of Torn Elkandu started destabilizing, and they had to deactivate the time-travel runes or it would have gone critical too, which meant they _couldn't_ go back."

"I'm not talkin' about the past," Keytar replied, "I'm talkin' about the current state of affairs. Shouldn't a gotten to that in the first place."

"From what I heard," Rettah said, "there was some group of Elkandu who were attempting to fix the mess on Earth with time travel… only to fail repeatedly because they failed to realize all they were doing was splitting off new timelines. Though supposedly, a lot of the various reflections that seem to split off in 20th century Earth were because of their influence."

"Seems ta me it's better overall that they have a tendency to keep to themselves." Keytar smirked. "Otherwise things go to hell when they're not thinkin' em through."

"For all I know, _this_ universe might be the result of one of those attempts," Rettah said, shrugging.

Keytar smirked. "Dunno babe, other than recent events, the place has worked out pretty well overall and in a logical sequence of events, not what I'd expect from the idiots muckin' about with time."

Rettah smirked. "You don't really think much of them, do you?"

"Haven't seen anythin' much to be impressed about," Keytar replied, "Oh, that's not ta say that they might not mean well, now and then, but I wouldn't want one of em marryin' my sister… if I had one," he snickered.

"Considering 'Elkandu' is only their term for any supernatural being, I generally consider myself one," Rettah said dryly. "I've known that lot for centuries, seen their ups and downs, they're certainly not perfect but for the most part they don't intend badly, and some of them have accomplished quite the incredible things."

Keytar shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, I ain't sayin' that people are any better here for the most part, but ya also don't see em runnin' around doin' things like screwin' around in time and getting a planet nuked. The evil ya know…"

"To be fair," Rettah said, "When they first encountered 20th century Earth, they did not actually realize that they were in the past — they didn't realize that the Nexus could traverse time as easily as space. These days, they generally leave messing with time well enough alone."

Keytar smirked. "The universe ain't a fair place, though I'm willin' ta give people a shot before sayin' one way or the other, doesn't mean I'm gonna go out of my way to look for em either."

"'Course, the Interdimensional Bridge seems to intersect different universes at different points in time, as well. Hell, you shoulda seen the confusion there was when they realized people weren't always reborn linearly… People could get reborn _before_ they were born… leading to them meeting themselves sometimes… Supposedly there's supposed to be a lot less of that now, but still…"

"At least ya don't have ta worry about that here," Keytar chuckled. "Spend a little time in the Summer Country, then go around for another spin when Gaia decides it's time."

"Though I do have to wonder, some claim magic is genetic, some claim it's not, some claim it's something else entirely…"

"Anyone with shapeshifter blood has the shot at it," Keytar replied. "Though the actual change can skip a generation or two dependin' on pure breed." He smirked. "Which is somethin' the Glass Walkers ain't got, so we end up with more metis than anythin' else."

"Some Elkandu claim that souls know what they're supposed to be and will naturally gravitate toward suitable bodies when they're reborn," Rettah said.

Keytar chuckled. "People who end up takin' a vacation for a while end up comin' back the way that Gaia wants em to, and thinks they're ready for. I've run across some Garou who had past lives as kin, but through their actions got 'promoted'."

Rettah shrugged, and said, "I dunno, one of them once experimentally tried to do the memory spell on me, too, but didn't get much more than vague impressions. Then, of course, they used the fact that as far as they could dig back, I seem to have always been a werewolf, to support their theories."

"Shapeshifters tend to _stay_ that way," Keytar replied, "Probably somethin' to do with the half physical, half spiritual nature a the beast… at least here."

"Of course, some Elkandu have this theory that there are only eight souls in the universe and they just all keep getting reborn non-linearly. But nobody actually takes them seriously."

Keytar snickered, "That sounds like the old joke about fruitcakes…" he snickered again, "Which is even more fittin' in context."

Rettah chuckled softly. "Indeed. Supposedly, _that_ camp thinks I'm an incarnation of the Seeker, for some godawful reason. You might know that particular soul better as 'Azale'." She smirked.

"Babe, if that were the truth, I think we'd all be runnin' for the hills." Keytar smirked, and Darksong agreed with a disgusted snort.

"Yeah, I thought they were crazy, myself," Rettah said. "They also say that Azale and Keolah are really the same soul, which is at least more generally accepted, even if it makes no bleeding sense. They say the paradox that made Azale a metamorph somehow unlinked his rebirth and she's actually the rebirth of him from another timeline… I'm not even going to _try_ to make sense of that."

"Me either," Keytar agreed, "Sounds really stupid on so many levels. I mean c'mon, how are ya supposed to get the _same_ soul in different bodies? That's total crap."

"Time travel, apparently," Rettah said. "What I was saying about how they could be reborn into the past… Ugh. What a mess."

"Uhhh-huh, right." Keytar shook his head. "Like the universe isn't screwy enough without tryin' to complicate it further."

"Yeah," Rettah said. "That's what the Elkandu do. They try to understand everything, then just end up confusing the hell out of themselves."

"There is a time for understanding and a time for acceptance," Darksong said lightly, "Always will there be matters which are beyond the scope of anything that we might understand, and must trust to Gaia or whatever other supreme entity might exist."

"Heh," Rettah said. "Go up and tell any Elkandu 'Trust in Shazmar' sometime and see how they react. Bet you it'll involve screaming and running."

Darksong giggled lightly, "No doubt, considering all that I've heard of him, and yet…" She smiled faintly and shrugged. "Does a trickster nature imply that he does not have the greater good of those he watches over in mind? No."

"He's done more to help them than they probably will ever realize," Rettah said. "Up to and including directly interfering to fix their mistakes sometimes."

Darksong chuckled, "And yet they fear him, or at least the ways that he might seek to teach them."

Keytar snorted, "Right, the enigmatic 'do it yourself' approach… typical, if not overly helpful sometimes."

"That's the trouble…" Rettah went on with a crooked grin. "The Blue Star is generally perfectly willing to answer people's questions, to the point that they aren't too sure that they want the answers. They still tell the tale of how Ishane once asked him what the meaning of life was, then spent the rest of the evening drinking heavily to try to forget the answer."

"Yeah, be careful what ya wish or ask for." Keytar smirked. "A monkey's got a couple a paws."

Darksong rolled her eyes at him, looked back to Rettah, "Would they rather he were never there, and ignored their woes wholly when the world is falling apart around them? I think not."

"Probably not, and everyone does seem to enjoy the competitions every seven years… Perhaps because they _can_ gloat over being the best at their field that way, too."

" _Some_ people," Darksong glanced pointedly at Keytar, who snorted, "Just aren't happy unless they have something to complain about, and will go to ridiculous lengths to secure a source for their misery."

Rettah chuckled softly, leaning over to goose him and winking.

"Hey! What? _What_?" Keytar snickered. "I'm not gripin' or bitchin', that's for when the fecal material _really_ hits the blades, I'm just not lookin' for any more trouble than needed," he grinned at Rettah, "Well, much anyway."

Rettah giggled softly. "Naturally," she said lightly, going to grab a cup of coffee and sit back down.

Keytar snagged a carafe so they could refill at will.

Darksong pulled out a bottle to have a little snack while they relaxed. "Mmm," she murmured, then blinked with a start as she looked around, " _What_ is _that_?" she wondered, forgetting about her drink as she stood. Power was radiating outward in incredible waves from somewhere nearby.


	11. Keeping Watch

Rettah managed to put down her coffee cup without dropping it as she stood also, scanning about in alarm.

Keytar almost choked on his coffee, but set the cup down before leaping to his feet and looking in the direction of the caern's heart. "What the _hell_?" He dashed off to the lodge's back door to head out into the near-dusk, with Darksong following shortly after.

Rettah headed off quickly along with them. "I'll second that 'what the hell'," she said.

Keytar led the way, looking around as there was no sign of anyone else heading in that direction, "Where the hell are the Warders?" he wondered, but didn't halt his headlong flight toward the glen. That rush came to a sudden halt as he almost ran into two of the Silver Pack in Crinos, guarding the path leading further in and looking determinedly alert, "None may pass," one of them growled, a Get of Fenris from the fur markings.

Rettah stopped and said, "What's going on?"

The other looked at her, the sleek lines and silver-white fur marking him as a Fang, and he dipped his muzzle briefly to acknowledge the one they'd been told of. "The Alpha has begun the rite to set the works of chaos to ruin, making use of the relics you had brought."

Rettah gave a nod and relaxed somewhat, and said, "Ah, I see. I'd thought we might have been under attack again or something."

Keytar and Darksong also relaxed visibly, though she perked with sudden curiosity as the flavor of the power was something she'd never quite experienced before.

"Be on your guard," the Fang said, "The rite will require 48 hours to complete, and there are those soon arriving to help make certain it is not interrupted."

Rettah gave a nod. "Very well," she said. Damn well if the badguys tried to stop them, as she was sure they'd likely try at least.

"Can we at least see what's being done?" Darksong asked, fairly quivering with curiosity, this was definitely an order of magnitude beyond what she'd felt anywhere else, and it was going to drive her crazy if left in the dark.

The Get snorted disgustedly and goes to reply, but the Fang silenced him with a staying gesture, "There would be no harm in it, so long as you do nothing." he looked at the Get, "You will escort them, if they wish."

Rettah gave a nod and said, "I surely know better than to mess around with something like that."

"Then go and see what your work has wrought," the Fang replied with a nod, and the Get moved to escort them with a low mutter.

Darksong paid him no mind, twitching with anticipation as she set out after their Garou guide. There wasn't any real physical change in the world around them as they went further toward the glen and finally emerged into it, but the feeling of it almost _merging_ with the Umbra grows stronger by the step. Rettah went on in after him, quietly watching with all her senses with great interest and careful not to do anything that might disrupt things. Rettah got a good sense of the threads being woven, even if she couldn't fully grasp their subtleties and complex twists, elements of Soul and Creation being the greatest part of them but certainly not the only Talents woven through. When they reached the glen, it was like stepping across the Gauntlet, the physical and spiritual literally merged at this point, and a host of glowing spirits were stationed in a circle around the heartstone.

"Lunes," Darksong muttered softly in identification, then turned rapt attention to the other details.

Gideon was at the center of the matrix, the four cubes suspended at equal distances in the air around him and a shimmering globe orbiting in a slow circle…. almost like the moon. Rettah stood back, watching quietly as she felt the power moving about. No, she certainly didn't want to let anyone interfere with this all after everything.

"What the hell's he doing?" Keytar wondered.

Darksong replied in a whisper, "He's channeling the blessings of Luna, Helios, and Gaia to do…" She frowned delicately, trying to sort through the insanely-complex weaves, then shook her head. "I don't know _what_ he's doing, exactly, but it's very, very big, and if it was interrupted…"

"We'll just have to make sure it's not," Rettah murmured quietly.

Darksong's eyes widen as she unraveled some small part of what was going on, "To set them in the skies…."

"Let's leave him to it, shall we?" Rettah said softly. "I can hardly begin to comprehend just what all he's doing…"

Keytar nodded, then smirked and grabbed Darksong by the arm as she showed no particular inclination to follow. "Yeah, that means you too, batty. C'mon." He dragged her off with some protest, but he didn't want to leave a member of the Silver Pack stuck playing babysitter when there were more important things to keep an eye out for.

Rettah smirked faintly and headed back out again quietly, thinking over what was going on and the possible implications thereof. Well, it surely wasn't the instant fix she had hoped for, but then again, nothing was ever easy now was it?

They returned to the rear lot of the lodge, only then did Keytar release Darksong's arm with a smirk, "Geez, they've got _work_ ta do, they don't need some crazy batbitch hanging in the trees."

Rettah snickered softly and said, "What was it you said you thought he was doing? Putting them in the sky, what, like the moons of Mezulbryst or something?"

Darksong was nearly bouncing with energy as she nodded. "There was a weave that was to put them under Luna's direct supervision, to remain eternally in Her orbit and to never again touch this world."

"Wow," Rettah said. "Better than whatever happened to Mezulbryst at any rate."

"I want to," Darksong began, and edges back in that direction.

Keytar caught her and dragged back toward the lodge, "Oh no ya don't, let's go get somethin' to drink and have some food."

"Yeah, I've got a cup of coffee in there with my name on it," Rettah said, heading in to retrieve it. "I don't know exactly what series of events lead up to Mezulbryst being as miserable a place as it is today, but it couldn't have been anything good."

Darksong followed after that with only a final wistful look back and a sigh, trudging over to retrieve the glass she'd left behind and settle into a chair. Keytar tops his cup off and drops into a seat, "Mm, well not sure just what this is gonna do _here_ , but it sure as hell can't be any worse than leavin' the bastards runnin' loose."

"Well," Rettah said, "Considering that Mezulbryst doesn't even _have_ a sun, and all it has is four very cheerful moons, and it's all about the closest thing to dead as you can get, well…"

"I kinda doubt that the Sun's goin' away," Keytar chuckled, "Much as some batwinged freaks might prefer it. No, not with Helios involved."

"No kidding," Rettah said. "Perhaps Mezulbryst is something like what would have happened otherwise… I don't know."

Other shapeshifters and kin filtered in and out of the lodge, some newly-arrived and setting out to their task of keeping an eye on the bawn in reinforced strength. A grizzled oldster muttered and swore viciously in Russian as he passed through, a stream of obscenities interspersed with commentary that the implants translated readily as referring to some kind of 'hellzone'. Keytar wondered what that's about, but ordered some food instead.

Rettah chided him gently, "I know turning metamorph gave you a bottomless stomach, but it seems like every time we've sat down lately you've been stuffing your face."

Keytar grinned. "What? I'm a growin' boy."

Darksong muttered, "And that's just his _ego_."

He snorted and ignored her, though, "Seriously though, just lookin' at addin' some mass, be interestin' to see what else can be done with it."

"Heh. I'll just start worrying when you start munching on the tables and chairs as well," Rettah said, leaning back and taking a sip of her coffee.

"Hmm, now _there's_ somethin' I hadn't thought of," Keytar replied with a deliberately thoughtful expression as he looked at the table, then snickered and grinned. "Aw hell no, I know Salara said I can take in denser stuff to speed the process, but the idea is too damned weird for me."

"Sides, I imagine it tastes like crap," Rettah commented.

"There's that, too," Keytar agreed readily and grinned a thanks as Betty brought over a huge burger and the trimmings. "Mm," he said, taking a bite and chewing, "Shapeshifter metabolism was already great for that, but this puts that to shame."

"Heh. Hmm," Rettah said pensively. "I wonder why I didn't encounter the werewolves on Earth in the 20th century when I was there… Well, then again, I rarely left Area 51…"

"You well may have not encountered them regardless," Darksong replied. "The shapeshifters were very much a secretive society up until the Awakening here, for fear of the mass of humanity which might otherwise have destroyed us."

"Dunno," Rettah said. "They _were_ actively looking for supernaturals. For all I know, some of the Elkandu still kicking about today may have been recruited during that period."

"The government has a black project which looked for them as well," Darksong replied. "Details of it were found following the conversion, and they had very little real evidence to go on. Shapeshifter and vampire alike were _very_ wary of being found and had means for assuring they weren't, or were hidden again if discovered."

"Then again, the Elkandu didn't have nearly the power or resources then that they do now," Rettah said. "They didn't even know about aura reading until they encountered one Pelarin Zetha, the Swordspinner, not that that was her real name."

Darksong smiled slightly. "The bloodkin have known and used that ability for a very long time, and it is also known to certain of the Bete as a skill."

"Though, the Elkandu did get some recruits, untrained for the most part, I had to deal with some of them, all wide-eyed at everything…" Rettah said, fondly reminiscing. "They, also, for the most part, kept their presence quiet. The Drakandu had their headquarters set up in Area 51, and the Kalkandu underneath Antarctica…."

"Certainly a much different universe, then," Darksong said, "As Antartica is the domain of the Selkies, who watch over a city that slumbers deep beneath the ice that they will allow none to approach."

"Perhaps," Rettah said thoughtfully. "I don't know when the split occurred or just what differences there might be between them, though I haven't seen any evidence of the Elkandu ever having been here. I did look up the titles of the games I'd helped to produce just on the offchance, they don't exist here either."

"Perhaps the split goes deeper still, beyond the obvious point where this world avoided the cataclysm of your own," Darksong said thoughtfully, "A great many events, of greater and lesser significance, could conceivably have done it."

Rettah nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I've seen worlds that, while they ran basically parallel for centuries or even millennia, actually had marked differences in spite of that similarity. But then, even if the Elkandu didn't find them, or many of them, there _must_ have been werewolves and such on Earth in that period, because, well, where the hell else would I have come from?" She smirked.

"There is that," Darksong agreed, "Though it may have gone even further back to the War of Tears, or the first or second War of Rage…" She tilted her head slightly. "Are there any other kinds of shapeshifters in your world?"

"Sure, plenty," Rettah said. "Like that bear who stepped on my laptop, and the shark who helped me and Ylanwad get home after we were lost at sea for three months…"

"Ah yes." Darksong nodded. "And what of the bloodkin?"

"Sitting around bars at night angsting over the fact that modern architecture includes circular buildings with no shadowy corners to brood in," Rettah said, smirking.

Darksong chuckled lightly, "And there is no hint of the factions that they once held here? What of their clans?"

"Don't know a damned thing about their factions or clans, aside from that some of them don't have reflections, and that's supposed to mean something," Rettah said, smirking.

"That would mark the blood of the La Sombra," Darksong replied, "Or at least in most cases, as there are rare exceptions. That line has been largely exterminated here, as they were one of the founding clans of the Sabbat and fell with them."

"Dunno what they might've once been," Rettah said. "But for the most part, the vampires there are pretty quiet, the few of them there are. Aside from composing bad poetry and reciting it in bars. Now, the nirrils, on the other hand, are something else…"

Keytar snickered. "Yeah, vampiric teddy bears, just the pet for ya, bats."

Darksong snorted at him.

"I have _no_ idea where they came from," Rettah said. "They seem to have most of the traits typical for vampires, aside from the fact that, well, they're two feet tall, fuzzy, and have little pink wings…"

Keytar munched on some fries, chuckled, "Little beasts are aggressive, that's for sure, and they're the scourge of hunters everywhere… make em run run screamin'."

"Though I think some of the vampires from Earth might've skipped out on the colony ships heading out to other planets. No idea about the rest, though."

"The bloodkin are as vulnerable as the rest of us to the sort of fury that was unleashed on that world," Darksong said softly, "Fire from the skies… is it any wonder that was among the first things dealt with during the Unification Wars?"

"The Elkandu described it as 'the power of the sun brought down to earth'," Rettah murmured, then shook her head. "So what else might tell where the split occurred? I'm afraid I'm not too clear on my ancient history."

"It may have even been something the bloodkin did," Darksong replied, "Perhaps they never formed the Sabbat and Camarilla, and the Accord of Thorns was never brought into being… There are so many possible points where it may have diverged, it's truly impossible to say."

"I wouldn't know," Rettah said, shrugging. "Even much of the last several thousand years since the Elkandu Crisis have been forgotten, nevermind whatever might have happened before then."

"And who knows? It could go back further to the time of the discovery of the new world," Darksong said, "Or the wars fought of Set and his brother Osiris. It might even be something so simple as a change during the Industrial Revolution."

"It could be a prehistoric butterfly that accidentally got stepped on," Rettah commented wryly. "But only a Chronomancer would be able to know for certain."

"More likely one of the Triune," Darksong disagreed. "A Chronomancer may have great power, but the sheer scale of the task of finding the specific instant where a single difference begins? Surely it _could_ be done, but it would take a great deal of time and effort, or luck."

"Not precisely," Rettah said. "A Chronomancer would be able to search down the threads themselves to see where they diverge, I believe. Though from what I hear, the universe is supposed to be converging more than diverging now… Perhaps that's the reason for the recent Temporal Convergence and now the Interdimensional Bridge opening up…"

"Regardless, there are countless points where such a divergence _may_ have been," Darksong replied. "In the end it matters little since they are greatly different worlds."

"Even if the one I originate from _weren't_ ten thousand years into the future or so," Rettah said, smirking. 

"Looked more like ten thousand years in the past," Keytar snorted, "Or maybe somethin' more like the 'Planet of the Apes' flicks." He made a face at Rettah, then grinned.

"Yeah, really," Rettah said, rolling her eyes. "It's sad how they were _only finally_ catching up to where they'd been in the 20th century again."

"Eh maybe with Suzcecoz on the job, and Malcolm's brood," Keytar replied, "Maybe things'll pick up a bit in the near future. Sure couldn't hurt things any."

"One can hope, at any rate," Rettah said. "So, I wonder. If the Weaver was somehow killed in the Elkandu Universe, what might've happened with the other two then?"

"Noooooo clue," Keytar replied. "And I sure as _hell_ ain't gonna go lookin'! Wyld and Wyrm are _nasty_ realms to be hangin' out in."

"I don't doubt that," Rettah said, snickering. "Purely, of course, on the speculatory and hypothetical question, and not for any intention of going poking around there."

Keytar snorted lightly, "Yeah right, I think we all know better than that." He smirked. "Seriously though, while the Weaver's inner domains are bad enough, the Wyld's are just pure damned chaos and the Wyrm, well… heh, better hope you've got an anti-decay field someplace."

"I did say I didn't intend to go poking around there, didn't I?" Rettah said, smirking. "Hmm. The Elkandu claim that the universe is driven by the 'Three Lights', whatever that's supposed to mean, though whether the same ones I'm not certain. Earth, Sky, and Time, they were supposed to be, or something like that. Which, even they agree doesn't make much sense when you think about it."

"Weird philosophies, ain't they grand?" Keytar grinned. "Personally I _like_ knowing just who and what's out there."

Rettah leaned back, drinking her coffee pensively. "After thousands of years of isolation and ignorance…" she murmured. "And then there were the fabled Tinean books with their arcane secrets, which were supposed to have been on Lezaria long before it was colonized somehow…"

"Some sort a aliens or somethin'?" Keytar asked, "Come ta think of it, didn't you mention somethin' about Whisper talkin' about this elder race as comin' from someplace else, too?"

"Yeah, think so," Rettah said. "Tinean was supposed to be the language of the trees or some such, they say the first ones who learned it had learned it through speaking to the spirits in the cherry trees of Thalarey or something… But then there was recently this huge deal made lately about the cherry trees' awakening and the sleeping El'dari emerging…"

"El'dari?" Keytar asked.

Rettah gave a nod. "The name's supposed to mean 'People of the Stars' in their own language. They look a lot like elves… but they said they were the 'real' elves, the original ones that the Lezarian elves were based on…"

"Huh, I wonder if they're the same sorta aliens that were here?" Keytar wondered. "Not like we saw em or anything, but they _were_ here a hell of a long time ago."

"No idea," Rettah said. "The El'dari were supposed to have been fighting some 'insane mutants from outer space', and they concealed themselves in the cherry trees where they slumbered for like, a hundred thousand years or something crazy like that."

"Maybe somethin' similar happened, only they ran and ended up here," Keytar mused, "He did say they'd run from somethin' in their own home." He thought about it a minute more, then grinned and shrugged. "Not like it really matters, them bein' dead and all."

"Couldn't tell you. I certainly wasn't around back then," Rettah said, shrugging. "And these El'dari had apparently forgotten a lot in their long sleep. But then apparently their cousins from another universe, the Eldar, showed up with this huge-ass spaceship that's up in orbit of Lezaria now and are helping them out…"

"That had to have caused a bit of a stir," Keytar chuckled, "Can just imagine what the reaction would be like if a 'huge ass spaceship' showed up in orbit here."

"And I mean huuuge," Rettah said. "Well, the Lezarians apparently relaxed pretty fast once they realized they weren't about to invade and try to take over and burn the place to hell like the huge ass Chaos fleet that turned up before…"

"Sounds like they have too many visitors, remind me not to lease an orbital condo there," Keytar snickered.

"And, of course, the Eyes of Truth is still in orbit," Rettah said. "It doesn't seem to actually fly around much for a spaceship…"

"'Course not, they lost their Captain somewhere along the way," Keytar replied, "Which means they can't go hoppin' around to find strange new worlds and green alien chicks to sleep with."

Rettah chuckled softly. "The only green chicks I've seen are dryads," she said. "And I'm not sure I'd call them aliens."

"Well damn, there go my vacation plans." Keytar smirked. "And I'm sure batty's crushed."

Darksong rolled her eyes and set her now-empty glass aside. "I'll leave the aliens to you, since you're very much 'out there'."

Rettah snickered softly. "Of course, on the other hand, the nymphs I've seen tend to not exactly wear much clothing either…" She shrugs.

"Guess there's somethin' to be said for gettin' back to nature, eh?" Keytar grinned, but Darksong didn't take the bait, her attention continuing to be diverted by the ebb and flow of power around them. She was of a far more mystical bent than he.

Rettah chuckled. "Oughtta go poking around the Eyes of Truth one of these days… I've heard rumor of all kinds of interesting goodies that were tucked away in storage rooms and forgotten about…"

"Oh?" Keytar asked, perking up a bit at the idea of new tech toys, "Rumors like what?"

"Like speakers that'll play any song ever written, and little computers hooked into the Eyes of Truth database, whatnot…" She shrugged.

Keytar chuckled, "Both of those have some seriously interestin' potential." The second was something that he just didn't know was included with the latest link to the GW net, he hadn't had any reason to really check it out.

"Not to mention, of course, portable holodecks, little ships that are bigger on the inside than on the outside, replicators, and such…"

"Portable holodecks… now _that_ sounds interestin'," Keytar replied, grinning, "Imagine the fun that could be had with a little toy like that."

Rettah grinned broadly. "Mmm, yeah. You shoulda seen all the tricks Sedder used to pull with his solid illusions…"

"Never, _ever_ , mention illusion and tricks in the same breath." Keytar shuddered melodramatically, "Brings flashbacks a Ragabash and their games."

Rettah snickered. "Well, he didn't exactly use it for silly games. He generally used it for rather more useful things, like displaying maps and diagrams, assisting in battle, or once he even faked his own death when someone was trying to kill him…"

"Well that sounds a bit more sane, at least," Keytar admitted, "Just had a bad moment there thinkin' about some a the things that _some_ people get up ta with it. Probably just as well that things like that aren't common here."

"He's been the top illusionist for many competitions in a row, not sure what happened to bump him off this last time. Aside from one certain fox putting on a very impressive show."

Keytar smirked. "Much as she or any Ragabash give me the creepin' willies thinkin' about em, gotta admit that that's one thing she was very good at. Some of the old concert vids remind me a lot of the stuff that Sheniro and his merry crew were doin'."

Rettah nodded. "Heh, it was apparently so impressive that even the others in the event stopped what they were doing to watch…"

"That I can believe." Keytar nodded. "Nothin' silly or half-assed about her when it came down to tellin' or singin' a story. Guess even a fox has to have their serious points." He smirked.

"Oh, I've got a recording of it if you care to see," Rettah said, sifting about in her pocket.

"Sure," Keytar replied, "I still watch the old recordings now and again myself."

Rettah pulled out the computer and brings up the recordings of the competition, and brought up the Illusion Non-Combat event and passed it over to him.

Keytar took it and watched intently, drawn into the story that he knew and understood that made it all the more engaging. "Um, yeah," he said at last, blinking once as he handed the device back over, "That's one hell of a storyteller, though…" he grinned a bit, "I doubt anyone even knew what the hell she was goin' on about, all the more impressive for it."

Rettah gave a nod and puts it back in her pocket. "I surely had no idea what she was going on about at the time…"

"The Prophecy of the Phoenix," Keytar replied, "With embellishment for effect, natch, but essentially how it turned out. The prophecy dealt with the Apocalypse that was supposed ta hit us, but it got turned away by that silver wolf," he smirked, "forcin' the shapeshifters ta work together."

"Prophecies, heh," Rettah said, smirking and shaking her head. "Either way, it was surely one of the highlights of the competition."

"Now why couldn't I have found someone with that kinda talent to run with instead of a bat with her head stuck in the clouds?" Keytar teased Darksong, who didn't even notice, and he smirked and looked back to Rettah, "See what I mean? Sheesh."

Rettah grinned faintly and said lightly, "Well, I can't say I'm much of an illusionist, but I can do my own pyrotechnics." She winked at him.

"True, true." Keytar grinned and nodded. "And you're pretty good at tossin' fire around too."

Rettah chuckled and stretched a bit, going to grab another cup of coffee. "It's kind of funny, some Pyromancers are affected by their own fire, but I'm not. They can't do things like the burning aura since it would hurt them…"

Keytar quirked a brow, "Sounds like that'd kinda defeat the purpose a bein' able ta sling fire around, kinda counter-productive to toast yourself."

"They say more Pyromancers die from spontaneously combusting than any other cause," Rettah said with a smirk.

"Let's hope ya don't decide to become a statistic," Keytar replied with a light snort, "That wouldn't be a good way ta go, I think."

"Not really, no, but at least it'd be quick…" Rettah said, chuckling. "Now, you know what's freaky? Those Dragonblood vampires. They can all sling fire around, and get to be more resistant to it than your usual leech to boot. Go figure."

"Now that's gotta be a pain," Keytar replied, "Not like leeches aren't already enough of a nuisance to put and keep down as it is. Blegh."

"Eh, they're not so bad, so far as leeches go at least. You'll never catch one of _them_ skulking around a shadowy corner reciting bad poetry."

"The bloodkin aren't _all_ that bad," Darksong snorted lightly, apparently paying a little more attention than appearances suggested, "They have no greater number of angst-ridden, gloom-shrouded members than humanity or the Garou. A single word will prove that point: teenagers."

Rettah laughed softly and said, "You have a point there. But I wasn't _that_ bad when I was a teenager."

"Perhaps," Darksong replied, smiling lightly, "And you would have at least had the excuse of age and hormones to your credit, the bloodkin who brood do not."

"And, while I _did_ write some poetry, it did not include the words 'despair' or 'miasma' anywhere," Rettah said. "Most of it was positively upbeat, too."

"And then ya went all fuzzy and had other things ta think about," Keytar chuckled, "Amazin' how the little things don't seem ta matter much when it comes to a perspective change like that."

Rettah chuckled and nodded. "Never did go in for the angsty poetry, anyway. Okay, so I did write a couple tragic ballads at one point, sort of, but only because the hero died heroically in battle or some such. Yeah…"

"Naturally," Keytar replied, "The hero only rides off happily into the sunset in bad old Hollywood flicks, otherwise they gotta do the 'right thing' and end up dead somehow slayin' a dragon or somethin'." he snickered.

"Yeah… Something horrible has to end up happening or people aren't going to believe a word of it," Rettah said, smirking. "Now what does that say about human nature?"

"That we're all a buncha realists?" Keytar replied with a grin, "That or people just gotta see someone else livin' a life they don't have and then gettin' it all swiped away at the end, albeit dramatically."

"That people can't believe that it would even be conceivable for someone to 'live happily ever after'… Even if they _did_ , it would be 'and they lived happily for the next 5 years until the divorce and child support lawsuits after she caught him cheating on her with the barmaid.'"

Keytar laughed, "Sounds like life ta me, so ya can't really blame people for associatin' that with their would-be heroes."

"Used to be, heroes were supposed to be larger than life, some image of perfection or some such," Rettah said. "And if they had any faults, it would be for being too selfless and generous, rushing off into danger without a thought to help others…"

"Those heroes withered away with the Dreaming," Darksong replied quietly, "Though perhaps they've made some small comeback in the world, impossible not to when there are real life examples to be found."

"Hey, now," Rettah said, smirking. "My only faults aren't being selfless. I'm also a pervert and easily distracted."

Darksong blinked in innocent confusion. "And this is considered a _bad_ thing?" Then grinned faintly.

Rettah laughed lightly. "Mmm, yeah, let's play 'guess how many different dildos are in Rettah's pocket'."

"Too many if they're in your pocket and not in use," Darksong replied slyly, and Keytar had to laugh as he rolled his eyes.

"What, in public?" Rettah said, laughing softly.

"Well…" Darksong drawled.

Keytar snickered, "Don't get her started, babe, seriously. Ya don't wanna know the trouble she's seen, and been, and been seen doin'."

Rettah chuckled. "I can imagine." She winked at Darksong playfully.

"Perhaps the most memorable being the Alpha's daughters," Darksong continued with a quirked grin, almost laughing as Keytar blinked in shock, and went on, "They were twins, you see, and the moon was full, the lake was inviting…"

Keytar sputtered, coughed, "Okay, now that's one I hadn't heard of."

Rettah laughed lightly. "Mm, sounds ilke fun."

"It was a long time ago, while they were yet young," Darksong said, to either tease or ease Keytar as she grinned briefly in his direction, "A midsummer's night dream, to borrow a phrase from the Bard…" she giggled softly, "Though they probably thought being caught out by their father somewhat less than idyllic."

Keytar just looked at her, snorted, "And you just thought it was terribly amusing, right?"

Darksong smiled. "Naturally."

Rettah stretched a bit, sipping her coffee and staring off at nothing in particular. "I wonder if Ylanwad is managing not to get into too much trouble without me."

"Depends on whether or not the nirrils came back and blockaded her in, I'd guess," Keytar replied with a chuckle, "That'd be a really scary line ta cross, ya know?"

Darksong had never met the woman, so poured herself another glass of wine and turned her attention elsewhere and when.

"Well, I don't doubt she'd be frantically trying to contact me for help if that happened," Rettah said, smirking.

"That or hiding in the basement, I'm sure." Keytar smirked and shook his head. "How anyone could be afraid of those things I could not guess."

"Same reason some people are afraid of clowns, mimes, small rodents, or whatnot, I guess," Rettah said.

Keytar snickered, "Hey now, it's not the people are _afraid_ of mimes, it's that they're outlawed under the conventions against cruel and unusual treatment."

Rettah chuckled softly. "For some reason, the Mime Magic taught at the old University of Magic never really caught on," Rettah said. "Neither, for that matter, did Bunny Magic, although Sex Magic did have a small following…"

"Just a small one?" Keytar asked, disbelief evident, "I woulda expected that ta be one of the primary fields a study!"

"Well," Rettah said. "The classes were taught by _Rhuan._ That was something of a turn-off for most people I'm afraid."

"Uh-oh, that doesn't sound good." Keytar grinned. "What was so bad about this Rhuan that made people want to avoid them like the plague?"

"People used to call him one of the top three people in the universe you would not want to imitate," she said, smirking. "Millennia-old vampire Chronomancer/Psionicist from another dimension, and was really into seducing and torturing people for fun."

"Sounds like a real sweetheart," Keytar replied drily, "Probably woulda gotten along just swell with some of the other old vamps that used to be hangin' around… emphasis on 'used to'." He smirked.

"He also had this nasty habit of not going away and staying dead, too," Rettah said, snorting. "Though, doesn't seem like he's shown his head around lately… maybe somebody finally got him…"

"With assholes like that, ya can always hope." Keytar nodded. "Even the bad pennies gotta get recycled _sometime_."

"Course, most people tended to leave him alone as it generally was not a smart thing to fuck with a Chronomancer without a whole heaping vat of antimagic. But maybe somebody's turned up lately with the power and skill necessary and the lack of tolerance towards vampires fucking around with people…" She shrugged.

Keytar snickered, "Sounds like somethin' Trigger'd get a kick out of, for damned sure, but he's not the only one out there who doesn't have any really great love for the leeches."

"Yeah, no doubt," Rettah said. "Though I'd think there'd have been something in the paper if anything more than just disappearing had happened. No idea, but I hope he doesn't come back…"

"Maybe he found someone as twisted and despised as himself and won't be seen again for a good, long while." Keytar smirked.

"Who knows… don't really care either," Rettah said, shrugging. "But yeah, always gonna be one asshole or another who wants to fuck around…"

"What would the world be like if there wasn't?" Keytar wondered, "Other than peaceful and quiet, be pretty damned boring overall and no need for the heroes… not that some of them might not prefer it."

"Suppose," Rettah said. "Though one would sound quite the ass to _hope_ people fuck around to give you something to do."

Keytar chuckled, "Nah, I have a feelin' that the people who deal with most of the crap would be just as happy if it all went away and they didn't have to anymore. Personally, I could live with that, just doin' whatever needs doin' on a normal basis and not havin' to worry about what's lurking about to chomp me in the ass."

"Though I'd generally prefer if people stuck to a slightly lower level of being an asshole. Like only trying to destroy small towns and not entire planets." Rettah rolled her eyes.

Keytar snorted, "Aw c'mon, where's your sense of adventure? It just wouldn't be the same if someone wasn't tryin' ta take over or blow things up on a universal scale, right?"

"Yeah, then I might actually sleep better," Rettah said. "Whatever."

"Hey, think happy thoughts, babe," Keytar cajoled, "Just a little while longer and the mess around here can start to gettin' patched up." The feel of magic continues to be a tangible presence, moreso than usual at the caern, and flows in even, steady waves.

"I hope so," Rettah said, "Though I think we're gonna need one hell of a roll of duct tape."

"What, you ain't got any in your pocket?" Keytar jested lightly, "You should always have that, some bailin' wire, a stick a gum, and a few other odds and ends so ya can mix up a nuke if need be."

"Yeah," she said, pulling out a roll of duct tape. "But I don't think it'll be enough," she added lightly, and put it away.

Darksong hmmed, a slip of a playful grin dancing at her lips, "There are better things than duct tape to be using, anyway."

Keytar snorted, "Oh geez," and smirked.

Rettah chuckled, and sifted through her bag, pulling out random objects. Paperclip, rubber band, pack of chewing gum, playing cards, enough dice to play D&D with, multi-colored pen, cigarette lighter, red comb, rabbit-shaped purple vibrator, ashtray, empty beer bottle, pocketwatch, hubcap, a guide to programming in Perl…

"Well it definitely looks like you're all set to play MacGuyver." Keytar smirked, not planning on commenting on certain items so long as Darksong didn't.

Rettah peered at the Perl book and said, "Does anyone even _use_ Perl anymore?" She scooped the items back into her bag.

"Ask one of the boys who's dealin' more with the software side of things," Keytar chuckled, "Wouldn't surprise me in the least ta find that _someone_ still does just outta nostalgia or some other bizarre fetish."

Rettah chuckled and put the book back, and pulled out some various D&D books. She flipped through one of them out of curiosity, and character sheets fell out. "Heh…"

"I haven't played that in years," Keytar chuckled, "What edition is it? … And I wonder whether it'd be the same even if the numbers matched."

"Fifth," Rettah replied. "Last version to be put out before the Elkandu Crisis. And I don't think I've even played it since then myself…"

"Heh, I think they went up to seventh, then put out the 'Unlimited' edition," Keytar snorted, "I don't think that went over as well with the gamin' public."

"And, let me guess, there's still people sitting around playing the original too because it was the 'best'?" Rettah said, grinning. "I rather liked some of the things they did with 5th Edition, though."

Keytar smirked, "Are you kiddin'? There's still people out there who watch the original Star Trek and sneer down their noses at any of the spin-offs… not that some of em really haven't _deserved_ that disdain."

"Oh, yes," Rettah said. "I thought they couldn't stoop any lower than Voyager, and then Enterprise came out…"

"Just don't get one of the boys started on that one," Keytar chuckled, "Some of em could quote chapter and verse how one series was better than another… frankly I thought they all need ta get a clue."

"Naturally. Besides, everyone with a brain knows TNG was the best," she said, winking playfully at him and taking a drink of her coffee.

"Don't make me drag you off and dunk you in the…" Keytar stopped, thought on that one a sec, then chuckled, "Okay, so you're safe from an unexpected toss in the lake for now, but don't think I wouldn't remember it for later."

Rettah giggled lightly. "That's supposed to deter me?"

"Well no, not really." Keytar grinned. "Come to think of it that might be more of an incentive. Hmm, okay, so maybe I should say don't make me _not_ do it."

Rettah laughed softly and reached over to tickle him playfully.

Keytar laughed and ducked off to the side, "Hey now!"

The spot of bright humor was enough to draw the attention of one of the older metis cubs who was passing through on its way outside, and he ambled nearer to take a bright look at what's going on. At the cub's age they were about six or so feet tall, maybe a year or so from their Firsting.

Rettah giggled lightly and looked over toward the cub. "Hi!" she said brightly grinning.

Keytar looked over as the cub poked its muzzle across, and grinned as he reached up behind him to scratch its chest. "Well hey there, Huey, how ya doin'?"

The cub was clearly delighted at finding someone who wasn't totally preoccupied with other matters, being too young to understand just what was going on and why. Its tail wagged cheerfully and it whurfed in greeting as it settled on its haunches near the two adults. Rettah was perfectly happy to take a bit to entertain the cub, having been getting a bit bored herself with purportedly 'guarding' the place.

Keytar chuckled lightly, "Just big fuzzy kids, Huey here shouldn't be too far away from his Firsting."

The cub clearly understood, nodding brightly and shotgun rattling off a babble of excitement in the Garou's native tongue.

Rettah grinned a bit and reached over to scratch the cub affectionately. "Can't say there were ever many metis back on Anda…"

Huey ducked his head shamelessly beneath her hand to direct it to scratching his ears.

Keytar chuckled, "They're a lot better off than they used to be, and a hell of a lot better than puttin' in life and parole on a homid kid." He smirked.

"But then, with all the scattered small towns and open stretches of wilderness, and the complete lack of much real organization with the shapeshifters…" She shrugged. "They never much interacted with one another, really…"

The cub looked at her wide-eyed, the idea of not being among the family pack an idea that was not only foreign but horrible, and he scooted forward to butt his head against her consolingly.

Keytar chuckled softly, "I think that idea was a bit sad for the little guy."

Rettah chuckled and said, "But hey, they stuck around with their families still. There were long lines of werewolves and their kin in some of the clans, really."

Huey brightened perceptibly at that, then straightened as he got an idea and reached to very carefully take Rettah's hand and tug on it, as though to pull her from the chair. Rettah let herself get dragged along with a faint grin and raising an eyebrow. Keytar quirked a brow, grinning with amusement as he stood up and went to follow, while Darksong chuckled lightly and let them go for now. Huey led them out the back door and down a different path than Rettah had been down before. Rettah wondered where they were going, glancing aside to Keytar as they headed on out, and grinning a little as they went.


	12. Bearing WIth It

"Ah, I get it," Keytar said cryptically as they wended their way deeper into the woods along the path, and chuckled at the eager enthusiasm of the cub. It wanted to _show_ Rettah what was at the other end of the path, and he wasn't going to spoil its surprise. At length they ended up in a clearing with a stream running down its center, a small waterfall cascading down into a pool at one side. The cub ambled cheerfully toward it.

Rettah headed along after, looking about with interesting and smiling broadly. "Is this what you wanted to show me?"

Huey shook his head and grinned broadly at her, then trundled to the waterfall and stepped through to a shadowy passage behind it. Torches guttered in sconces set on the rough-hewn stone walls, and the air was surprisingly still and quiet considering the location. Rettah headed along after him, peering about thoughtfully at the tunnel and wondering just where it was they were going. Keytar whistled softly as he trailed along behind, hands tucked into his pockets. Huey continued along the winding passage, ignoring side branches along the way, until it opened suddenly out on a massive chamber with a softly-glowing pool at its center. Glyphs covered the walls from the height of a Garou's fullest reach down to the ground, and the cub pointed around brightly.

Rettah stared around at the place with interest. "What is this place?" she asked quietly as she lookedabout.

"A part of the Silver Record," Keytar replied quietly, looking around, "This caern wasn't the first one to be set up on this spot, there was one before that was Uktena, Croatan, and Wendigo, and this," he jerked his chin to indicate the walls, "Is their story, the things that they thought were important enough to be added to the Record and never forgotten." Huey nodded energetically in agreement, and Keytar smiled, "The family thing."

"Mmmh," Rettah said, walking quietly around the chamber slowly and giving more than a little interest toward the writing on the walls.

Huey walked cheerfully alongside her on all fours, looking over the glyphs that he knew very well by this point. They were designed to be made with Garou claws, slashed into stone and retelling the history of the caern that had been here before.

Keytar strolled casually after, glanced aside to Rettah, "They the same you use back on Anda?"

"Not really, although they appear to be etymologically related," Rettah said, then proceeds to launch into linguistics technobabble making comparisons and postulations toward the divergent differences.

Keytar listened, but he clearly got about as much out of the babble as the cub does. Huey didn't mind, though, he listened to the tone and timbre of her voice, the interest in the subject clear enough to his sensitive ears.

After several minutes of that, she noticed Keytar's blank expression and said, "… uh, right, guess I'd be better off just publishing a linguistics essay about it eh?" She chuckled lightly.

Keytar chuckled lightly, "Sorry babe, that just went over my head other than realizin' you were talkin' about the language. Garou glyphs haven't changed here in thousands of years, so I was kinda curious whether they were the same elsewhere."

"They'd changed a bit, but after ten thousand years and a couple cataclysms that's probably to be expected, although it's still recognizable as quite clearly related."

"You wouldn't believe the trouble this place caused after it was discovered," Keytar said, "The 'Pure' tribes went totally ballistic wantin' to get their hands back on the land and claimed this proved it was theirs," he smirks, "The Boss showed that possession is more than nine-tenths of the law."

Rettah chuckled softly. "It's kind of like reading Latin when you already know Italian, or something," Rettah said thoughtfully. "Though not nearly as much language drift as I'd expect. Modern Andan would be completely unrecognizable to anyone here."

"Probably," Keytar agreed, then stiffened reflexively as he detected motion on the far side of the pool.

The cub turned its head inquisitively that way, then bounded joyfully off to greet the solidly-built gray-haired man who walked around the edge of the pool. Keytar chuckled as he recognized the man approaching and the apparent head-on collision coming, but the cub skidded to a halt and licked the man energetically in the face.

"Rettah, the man currently drowning is Gareth," Keytar said, grinning, "Gar, meet Rettah."

The man chuckled deeply, showering attention on the cub, then gently urges it down to nod to her, "Pleased to meet you."

Rettah chuckled softly and gave a casual wave, and said, "Likewise I'm sure."

"Gar here's our resident historian and general teacher," Keytar chuckled, "Hence why Huey here made a mad dash to say hello."

The cub seemed quite content now that he'd done what he'd set out to do, and lay on the floor with his head nestled on his arms to watch the adults, tail wagging slowly.

Rettah grinned a bit and inclined her head to him. "I see," she said with a small smile.

"I've been away a little while, just got back to the caern a day or two ago," Gareth said, his voice a slow and easy drawl, not Southern, just very much relaxed, "It's always nice to see a new face, even during times like these, or maybe _especially_ in times like these."

Rettah gave a nod and says, "Yeah… I'm not exactly originally from around here myself, really." Something of an understatement, really.

"Well why don't you pull up a rock and talk for a spell?" Gareth said, smiling, the tracks at the corners of his eyes and mouth showing it was a regular and familiar expression.

Rettah chuckled softly and said, "Certainly." She took a seat somewhere, stretching a bit. "Now, really, I'm originally from the other side of the Interdimensional Bridge, from a little place called Anda, which is what used to be Europe, around ten thousand years into the future and in another timeline entirely basically, another reflection of what might have been…"

"I've heard something about that," Gareth replied, then shapeshifted to the towering bulk of a grizzly werebear so he could draw the cub over and hold it while they talked. Huey didn't seem the least disinclined to do so, and snuggled into the soft brown fur. "Or I should say that I've heard _of_ some of the goings-on from dealing with others who have passed this way."

Rettah grinned a bit at the cub and nodded to Gareth. "Indeed. I imagine it's something of a strange situation, perhaps, but then, even though I can be pretty sure the timelines diverged and ran parallel for some time, as there were already some differences during the 20th century, it wasn't until the 21st that they seem to have really gone off onto different angles entirely…"

Garou were very social overall, and Keytar sat next to Rettah in companionable quiet, listening to the conversation. Gareth rumbled in a deep but perfectly legible voice, "I really couldn't say much about that, the idea of a perfectly good universe splittin' itself off makes no sense to me."

"Heh. They say every time somebody does something, anything, a new timeline is split off, one which that something happened, and one where it didn't, every little change brings about an infinite array of possibilities…"

Gareth nodded, raising a hook-like claw to gently scratch under the cub's muzzle and bringing a delighted sigh from it, "Mmyeah, I've heard that sorta theory before, now whether or not it's plausible or if it'd just be more major events that'd do something like that is for theorists."

"I've seen enough different versions of the planet Earth to know there's at least some truth to it, certainly," Rettah said. "Seems like every where you look around you're bumping into another one… "

Gareth chuckled lightly, "Well there's enough going on in this one to keep one bear occupied his entire lifetime, and Gaia's seen to it that I've never been bored."

"So I've noticed," Rettah said, chuckling. "I must say I rather like it here myself. A lot of those worlds, they might look deceptively similar, until you notice something major is different…"

"It's the little things that make the real difference," Gareth replied, "I wouldn't trade an hour of my time spent in this world for any other, and I'm sure my mom woulda said the same. Gaia gives each of us a task, and to do that well is the greatest honor and satisfaction that anyone could wish for."

"Perhaps so. Though I'd never really felt at home until I'd come here. Not on the world where I grew up nor any of the others I'd visited…" She shrugged faintly.

"Where you're born doesn't really matter," Gareth replied lightly, "Finding a home is something that just happens when you run across a place and you _feel_ it. Doesn't matter who or what else may be there, you know that's where your heart is."

Rettah gave a nod and said, "Yeah… Suppose so… I wandered around, explored dozens, hundreds of different worlds during the Age of Exploration, but I never really felt that until I came here…"

"And now you know that there'll always be a place for you to return to," Gareth said, "That's the great thing about home, it's always waiting for you when you need it the most, when the road's got you worn down and drained away."

Rettah smiled faintly and said, "Mmh, yeah… and why I made damned sure to do everything I could to make sure it would _still_ be here…"

Gareth rumbled a chuckle, "It'd take an awful lot to undo all that Gaia has done, even the trouble that's going on now will get worked out in the end, one way or the other. There's going to be plenty of work to be done soon enough, though, especially for the healers and teachers."

Rettah gave a nod and said, "Yeah… once I get some journal entries cleaned up, organized into a book or something… hmm, can't hardly call it a 'novel' if it's true huh…"

"Well sure you can," Gareth disagreed lightly, "Just because it's an account of real events doesn't make it any less an artistic endeavor. There's plenty of historical novels out there." He reached around behind him and pulled out a pouch, at the sight of which the cub sat up and looked brightly interested. The reason became clear as the bear started drawing out various bits of this and that, quite the collection of crafts materials.

"Well, technically a novel is a work of fiction… But, semantics," Rettah said, chuckling. "For all that was forgotten back where I came from, I'd prefer that a thousand years from now, people remember just what happened, and why…"

"Go on now," Gareth said gently to the cub, "Take what looks interesting and see what you can do with it."

Huey didn't have to be invited twice and started picking through the miscellaneous bits of shell, plants, string, and all things shiny, and started putting them together in a fashion that his young mind found appealing.

"It's important to remember the past," Gareth agreed, looking back to Rettah, "and as important to look to the future."

Rettah watched in some amusement. "That forethought thing, right," Rettah said wryly. "Can't say I was ever too good at actually planning anything. I always seem to get, well, distracted by one thing or another and forget what I meant to do." She chuckled lightly.

"That's not so bad," Gareth replied, "I wasn't talking about planning out your day hour by hour for the next century, just keeping in mind the things that are important to you and those you care about so you don't lose them."

"Right, yes," Rettah said, grinning a bit and flashing a glance over toward Keytar.

"What?" Keytar asked innocently, not missing the look that either tossed his way.

Gareth just chuckled, "Well once you find a place to call home, and a family to go there with, everything else just falls into place when you pay attention to what Gaia tells you."

Rettah coughed a bit and laughed lightly. "I will … refrain from comment for the moment." She just grinned some more.

"Gar, don't make me drag out some of the old recordings that have Bear in em…" Keytar glared at him.

Gareth chuckles, "And why should that bother me? He may have been a dancing fool, but the old Gurahl ways and disdain for that have largely gone. You should have seen the last moot, they were dancing all over."

Keytar smirked, "Last moot, what, you ran across another bear and high-fived before movin' on?"

Rettah snerked softly, sitting back and watching the cub with a broad grin quietly. The bears had always been a favorite among the young at the Sept since their arrival, whether homid, metis, or lupus young, they taught and protected them all. That was part of _their_ litany, a piece that they'd never forget, as the young were the future and Gaia's greatest gift to them.

Gareth chuckled at the remark and just shook his head, "Just because we bears don't get together quite as much, doesn't mean we don't."

Rettah sighed wistfully as her mind was clearly drifting off onto other subjects entirely, having completely lost the train of the conversation.

Gareth lifted a shaggy brow, looking back to Rettah, "Now that didn't sound like boredom, what's on your mind?"

Rettah blinked and looks up at him and said, "Oh. Um. Nothing, nothing really…" She entirely failed to sound particularly innocent or that nothing was on her mind. Especially with how much she was grinning.

"Uh-huh, I know that look already," Keytar replied with a suspicious glance, "That's the 'I'm up to something' look, and that makes me more than a little nervous."

Gareth laughed lightly and reaches over to gently scratch the cub's head as it looks up at him, startled by the sound, then happily went back to its play.

"I am not," Rettah said in gentle protest, chuckling softly and winking at him.

"Uh-huh, Ms. I'm-Not-Up-Ta-Anything," Keytar smirked and nudged her with an elbow, "Should we head back to the lodge and leave these two to their crafts? The kids just love Harm. Heh."

Rettah chuckled softly and said, "Sure, if you like." She continued to grin like a fool some more.

"Uh-huh." Keytar just gave her a look, then looked over at Gareth. "I'll find out what you did and get even, you know that right?"

Gareth just chuckled, digging through his pouch again as he returned to homid form and bringing out some various basket-weaving materials to keep the cub company with for a bit. "You kids run along, then, and have fun."

Rettah chuckled a bit, stood up and started on out, stepping lightly and cheerfully as she went. Keytar gave a last backward glare at the bear, but had to grin a little as Huey didn't even seem aware that his former playmates were leaving. He shook his head and set out after Rettah, wondering just what the hell had gotten into her… not that it was a _bad_ thing to see her cheerful, it just made him suspicious. Rettah started humming a little tune when they were outside again, perhaps without even realizing it, as she absently headed on back the way they had come.

Considering the power that was flowing around here at the moment, acting like a flare to anything that could sense it, it was little surprise that the forces it was intended to work against were going to start looking at ways to counter it. What better way to start things off on a distracting note than to toss in a horde of disposable cannon fodder? The alarm was already being passed at the caern proper, of course, but… Keytar and Rettah were a little outside that network, and even as a Howl went up to warn everyone, _things_ bounded from the opposite end of the clearing with the entrance to the Record cave. Slobbering, rotting things on four legs that might have been dogs at some point, but now looked a little hungrily at the two of them as they charge.

That was quite enough to break Rettah out of her reverie, as she quickly instinctively shifted form and flames surrounded her and she proceeded to try to fight them off fiercely.

There were a lot of these things pouring through the trees, and it was clear that they'd already been at work from the streaks of blood on their muzzles and claws. Perhaps they were not worried about fire, or maybe they were too stupid to care, but either way a small pack of them leapt on Rettah and dragged her down, snarling and ripping furiously at her. Keytar did little better, though he managed to keep his feet at least. Rettah's flames flared furiously in some instinctive attempt to defend herself, but she remembered how many of the creatures they had fought were unaffected by it. Struggling to fight them off, she remembered a related power that she'd rarely used that might be able to dissuade them better: Lightning. She proceeded to set it against them desparately.

It wasn't that they were immune to fire, or at least not specifically, each of them wrapped about in an elemental shield that would protect against _one_ element at a time… the creatures on her are caught unprepared by the sudden shift and the stench of burnt meat rises, while others of the creatures continue to stream past to lash into the caern and try to get to the ritual. 

Keytar was apparently somewhat pissed, and doubled the size of the normal Crinos to throw the creatures spinning away in all directions.

Now that was more like it, she thought as she rose swiftly and bounded after the ones trying to get in closer, sending lightning bolts searing toward the ones out of reach. The lightning scored them, but only arced harmlessly around their bodies. A few more turned back to attack her, though, leaving the rest to continue on. Keytar got himself clear, ripping one of the things in half, then lunged forward to lend her a hand, claw, or whatever the case may be.

The hell? she thought. Were these things like the Borg or something? The fire aura still surrounding her flared in irritation. She'd never been very good with lightning — a matter of control more than being able to summon it, really — and hadn't really thought of trying it until now. Distracted by the creatures to the front, Rettah missed the two other that had broken off and circled around to leap at her from either side, and again she found herself in the unenviable position of being at a disadvantage as they latched onto her arms with their shredding jaws.

Keytar swore violently and leapt to help her, only to be caught head-on by the others that she'd been fighting and staggered backward. Rettah swore colorfully and struggled vehemently, sending fire and lightning bursting heedlessly in all directions from her body. Violent pain spasmed through Rettah as she tried too much of the unfamiliar… play with fire, you might get burned as the old saying went, but it worked just as well for lightning. It fed back through her, amplified by her anger. Rettah howled in pain even as she continued to flail about blindly. Right, her own _fire_ might not hurt her, but she wasn't inborn to _Lightning_ , and clearly she'd need to take some extra precautions trying to use it that she didn't have to when using Fire…

The creatures took the opportunity to secure their holds even more tightly, savaging with their teeth, and no help was forthcoming from Keytar as the ones that went after him pressed him back another step… Rettah tried to block out the pain, clear her mind and focus. This was hardly the first time she'd fought against impossible odds before, surely. But at the moment the only tactic she was really managing is praying desperately. It would seem that Gaia wasn't listening today, and the creatures worked at using her like a chewtoy, while the ones on Keytar manage to drag _him_ down to the ground… Or perhaps she just worked in mysterious ways as a shape loomed out of the forest and started ripping into the creatures with hooked claws. Seems Gareth didn't miss the distant call to arms, and he threw the creatures away from them with the sheer brute power of a werebear.

At seeing the much-needed assistance, Rettah staggered to her feet, snarling at their attackers and proceeding to try lightning again, this time a good deal more carefully as she didn't care a repeat of the last attempt. Ow. Between the three of them, the creatures that remained behind were shortly shredded, but that left the rest of them still headed for the caern proper and who knew how many others that they _hadn't_ seen. Keytar dashed off as the last one fell, crashing through the undergrowth and clearing an easily-followed path. Rettah didn't hesitate to head off in that direction as well, stumbling a bit. It hurt, certainly, but she'd regenerate and there was still battle left to be fought.

They returned to the lodge area to find a pitched battle already underway, but the defenders were clearly winning this one without any great losses… of course it helped that the totem spirit of the caern and others had leapt into the fray. Keytar dove into the melee, claws rending and slashing the creatures, and Gareth waded in to one side of him. Rettah jumped in as well on the other side, lending whatever assistance she could and gladly so. There was plenty of blood to go around, but the dying was for the loser in this fight, and that was the creatures' lot this day. Mere minutes later there were no more of them left standing, and none of them appeared to have gotten past the two of the Silver Pack standing staunchly at the entrance to the caern's heart.

Rettah was glad enough when it was over, scanning about to make sure they were all gone before reverting back into human form. "I don't doubt we haven't seen the last they're gonna send at us either," Rettah muttered pessimistically. "Is Huey okay?"

Gareth shook off a few wounds he'd gotten and returned to homid form, "I left him back in the cavern, I'll go tell him it's safe to come in." He nodded to her, then trudged off to do so.

Keytar looked none the worse for wear when he walked up to look her over, at least.

"I'll be fine," she assured him. "I think I did more damage to myself than they did to me," she said dryly. "Do remind me when this is over that I need to remember to practice more?"

"Hey, just glad you're okay," Keytar smiled a bit and hugged her, then stepped back and stretched, "We'll leave the field to the healers and get outta their way, unless you got any hurt that needs attention?" he finished on a questing note, looking her over again in concern.

"Well, I don't _think_ so at any rate…" Rettah said, shrugging and glancing down at herself. "I did only get mauled and electrocuted after all," she said lightly.

"If you can joke about it, you're fine." Keytar smirked. "C'mon, let's get back inside and out of the way…" He frowned. "Hmm, wonder where Darksong got to?"

"Dunno," Rettah says as she headed inside thoughtfully. "She was in here wasn't she?"

"Yeah, but I doubt she slept through that, that's a little much." Keytar smirked, stopped at the doorway to look back for any sign of the crazed bat that he coulda _sworn_ he'd seen during the battle, then shook his head and went inside after Rettah, still frowning.

"Well, yeah, guess so," Rettah said. "That's what Seeking's sposed to be for… scry around and find people. I was never very good at that, either," she added smirking.

Keytar chuckled quietly as he ducked around the counter to draw a carafe of coffee and ambled back to a table with a couple cups. "She'll turn up, I'm sure." Mostly.

Rettah took a seat, slumping into it and relaxing and letting her eyes slide shut.

Keytar poured the coffee and pushed a cup over to her, "You look like ya need that, babe," he said quietly.

Rettah opened her eyes in a blink and got, "Right, yeah…" She took it and takes a drink wearily. "Mmmh…"

Keytar quirked a smile, "Or maybe you should just get some sleep, you look worn out."

"That probably couldn't hurt either," Rettah said. "Battle's going on you feel like you could keep fighting forever, then when it's over you just feel like wanting to sleep for a week…" She smirked.

Yeah, know how that goes, or at least I did," Keytar chuckled lightly and stood, setting his cup down, "C'mon, let's get you up to bed and rested up, you look like hell." He grinned teasingly.

Rettah chuckled softly, put down her half-empty cup, and went along to bed for some rest.


End file.
